The Greystone GT McLaren 720S of Zac Meakin and Dean Macdonald took a clear win in Race 2 at the Autódromo do Algarve and joined the club of title contenders for this season as they leave Portugal as the first standings leader of 2026. It is the maiden GT Open win for the young British-Ukraininan and the third for the Scot. “Again, like yesterday, it wasn’t an easy race but everything went smoothly”, they said on the podium”.
Christian Mansell and Maxi Götz (Motopark Mercedes) repeated yesterday’s second, with the Elite GP Ferrari of Tom Emson and Tom Lebbon taking third.
Local hero Henrique Chaves delighted his fans with a last-minute win in Pro-Am, shared with Charle Bateman in the Blackthorn Aston Martin, ahead of Blanchemain-Pla (Saintéloc Audi), again on the podium, and Müller-Mettler (CBRX by SPS Mercedes), who lost the class win in the closing moments.
Marcelo Hahn, now associated with Galid Osman, in the AF Corse Ferrari, celebrated his return to the series with an Am win, ahead a trio of Poles: the Lewandowskis father-and-son (Baron Motorsport Ferrari) and Piotr Wira (GoodSpeed Aston Martin).
The weekend marked the successful introduction in the series of the new Michelin tyre for customer racing, the Pilot sport Cup H2/H2+.
THE START – Dean Macdonald was on pole in the Greystone GT McLaren and kept the advantage over Mettler, with Baumann in third ahead of J.Kell, Armanni, Abril, Mansell , Jefferies, Neubauer and Korzeniowski. The initial phases are unusually quiet, although the gaps remained closed.
After a few laps, Mettler took the lead from Macdonald, who remains within a second. They are followed by Baumann and J.Kell two seconds behind, then Abril and Mansell who are fifth and sixth after passing Armanni. The situation is stable up to the pit stops which start on lap 14.
After all driver changes, Meakin leads with 5 seconds over Ramirez and 7 over Götz, ahead of Müller, Lebbon and Vaselaho, who are ten seconds aback. Follow De Meeus, Letlaka, Fontana, D.Kell and Chaves.
By lap 23, Götz has taken second from Ramirez but the German’s gap with respect to Meakin, in the lead, has grown up to 8 seconds. Lebbon is third with Müller fourth and first Pro-Am, then Vaselaho, Fontana, Chaves and Mosca, while Hahn leads in Am ahead of Lewandowski Sr. and Wira.
In the last laps, Ramirez will have a couple of contacts, first with Vaselaho then with Lebbon, while Müller spins on his own leaving the Pro-Am win to Chaves, with Pla second, but salvaging third. Hahn wins in Am ahead of Lewandowski Sr and Wira.
