Verstappen Racing leaves the paddock puzzled after difficult qualifying

On Friday, the focus was mainly on Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing, naturally because Verstappen was present. On Thursday, there was already plenty of speculation that everyone would go all out in an attempt to beat the Dutchman. At the end of the season, many teams have nothing left to lose, and taking down a four-time world champion certainly sounded appealing.

However, Verstappen was not expected to dominate, Lionspeed GP owner Patrick Kolb told GPblog. He knows Verstappen well: last year, the 29-year-old earned his Nordschleife permit in Kolb’s Porsche Cayman GT4. This weekend, they are competing against each other — a battle in which Porsche currently seems to have the upper hand. "It’s great to see that he doesn’t immediately dominate this branch of the sport. The drivers here are absolutely world-class and are operating at that level," Kolb said.

"I really hope that on Saturday we’ll see not only him fighting at the front, but also our drivers in our car, going up against him. That would obviously be the best publicity you could ask for," he concluded. Verstappen, Barnicoat and Lulham are therefore expected to fight their way up the field.

The fact that they would need to do so came as something of a surprise. Few in the paddock seemed to expect Verstappen Racing to struggle so much in the session. On the other hand, that surprise may not be entirely justified. Of course, Verstappen and his teammates’ ability is not the issue, but this field features highly experienced drivers and teams, exactly what Kolb had already pointed out. This is no ordinary grid for Verstappen to compete on. Even so, many had expected him to be in contention for pole position.

Ahead of qualifying, it was announced that the Balance of Performance would be adjusted for every manufacturer except Porsche. All Mercedes-AMG GT3s, however, were made five kilograms lighter, while Aston Martin had a hefty 15 kilograms added. Further adjustments may be made after qualifying. In the media centre, people joked that the BoP adjustment for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport was the 'Max BoP', supposedly because the organisers wanted Verstappen to be at the front.

The session itself proved that this was hardly the case, as all three drivers struggled with the car. The car appeared to be set up quite low, with footage showing a considerable amount of sparks flying from underneath it catching people’s attention. Verstappen Racing has some work to do on Saturday in the Algarve. Their main challengers appear to be the Porsches, which look blisteringly fast with the Pro line-ups from Lionspeed and, in particular, pole-sitters Boutsen VDS Racing. They will be split on the grid by the #17 GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3, driven by Ralf Aron, Maxi Götz and Fabian Schiller.

Winward Racing has successfully appealed its disqualification from the second sprint race in Misano. As a result, Maro Engel and Lucas Auer have had their third place in the #48 Mercedes-AMG GT3 reinstated. The Belgian motorsport federation RACB upheld the appeal and overturned their previous decision. The points they regained mathematically secured the duo the overall drivers’ title in the GT World Challenge Europe.

Engel and Auer can therefore begin the final three-hour race in Portugal as champions. The race starts on Saturday at 17:00 GMT. The ruling does not change the final Sprint Cup standings, while the overall teams’ title is still up for grabs. Winward Racing therefore still has plenty to fight for in the season’s final race.