{"id":912041,"date":"2026-10-01T08:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T08:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/912041\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T08:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T08:52:12","slug":"verstappen-adds-portimao-gt3-race-in-the-middle-of-hectic-f1-schedule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/912041\/","title":{"rendered":"Verstappen adds Portimao GT3 race in the middle of hectic F1 schedule"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red Bull star Max\u00a0Verstappen<\/a> will use the brief gap between two Formula 1 triple-headers to contest a GT3 race at Portimao.<\/p>\n

The Dutchman will drive a\u00a0Mercedes-AMG GT3 entered by 2 Seas Motorsport under the Verstappen Racing banner at the GT World Challenge Europe finale in Portugal on 16-18 October.<\/p>\n

This would mark the four-time F1 champion\u2019s first outing in\u00a0SRO\u2019s GT World Challenge series and pit him directly against MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi, who will be competing for BMW\u2019s factory-supported WRT team in the same Pro category.<\/p>\n

Verstappen confirmed his upcoming GT3 outing, his first since the Nurburgring 24 Hours in May, ahead of this weekend\u2019s Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.<\/p>\n

The surprise appearance has been made possible by a late change to the World Endurance Championship calendar, leaving full-season Verstappen Racing drivers Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella<\/a> unavailable for the clashing GTWCE finale. Gounon and Juncadella will be racing for Alpine<\/a> and Genesis respectively in the Barcelona 6 Hours on the same weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that two of my drivers won’t be part of the line-up. Two other drivers need to step in. I’m looking forward to it,\u201d Verstappen said, before confirming he will be racing himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, I would have loved to see my normal drivers compete, but the calendar has changed at times. And that’s OK.\u00a0I love\u00a0Portimao. I love being in Portugal. So we’ll try and have a good weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Max <\/p>\n

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing<\/p>\n

Photo by: Clive Mason \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear who will join\u00a0Verstappen and Chris Lulham for the three-round Endurance Cup race at Portimao, but the Red Bull driver ruled out the possibility of teaming up with Fernando Alonso<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With the addition of the\u00a0Portimao GTWCE event, Verstappen is set for the busiest stretch of the season, contesting seven consecutive races between last weekend\u2019s Azerbaijan GP and the Brazilian GP on 8 November.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s going to be a busy seven weeks, but we’ll do it and I enjoy it anyway. So, let’s see what we can do there,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Verstappen has been increasingly devoting more time to his sportscar racing endeavours, while his eponymous team has also expanded its racing programme for 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Next year, Verstappen aims to return to the Nordschleife for a second crack at the Nurburgring 24 Hours, after being cruelly robbed of victory this May by a late mechanical issue.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old is also planning to add the Spa-Francorchamps 24 Hours to his 2027 schedule, although he has shut down any talks of racing Ford\u2019s new Hypercar at the Le Mans 24 Hours.<\/p>\n

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– The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Bull star Max\u00a0Verstappen will use the brief gap between two Formula 1 triple-headers to contest a GT3…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":912042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,406426,817,813,816,165556,825,141090,85,479571],"class_list":["post-912041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bahrain-gp-in-malaysia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-gt-world-challenge-europe-endurance","tag-max-verstappen","tag-sepang-international-circuit","tag-sports","tag-verstappen-adds-portimao-gt3-race-in-the-middle-of-hectic-f1-schedule"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=912041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/912042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}