As Speedcafe reports, Max Verstappen's much-anticipated foray into GT racing was regrettably cast into the shadow of online abuse directed at his teammate. Sharing the #3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing entry with Chris Lulham and Ben Barnicoat for Saturday's three-hour Endurance Cup finale in Portugal, the four-time Formula 1 champion found himself defending his squad off the track rather than celebrating their raw speed on it.
The trouble began when a promising run unravelled just over an hour from the checkered flag. Lulham, the 23-year-old Brit, attempted a pass on Luca Stolz for fifth place that resulted in contact and sent the rival car spinning. Officials handed down a drive-through penalty nearly 20 minutes later, dropping the Mercedes down the order to 24th and destroying any hope of a podium finish.
That racing incident triggered a wave of hostile messages aimed directly at Lulham, prompting an emphatic response from Verstappen. Speaking out against the vitriol, the F1 star insisted that personal attacks have no place in the sport and reminded critics that mistakes are simply part of racing, praising Lulham for a strong stint.
Before the drama unfolded, the weekend had already demanded a resilient fightback. A setup error in qualifying left the Mercedes lacking performance and buried down the order, though a fix overnight allowed Barnicoat to make early progress from 13th on the grid. Barnicoat avoided the chaos at the start, handing over to Lulham, who charged forward before the ill-fated penalty dropped them deep into the pack.
When Verstappen finally strapped in for his stint in 24th, the machine's true pace came alive under the fading light. Dealing with heavy traffic and a Safety Car intervention that left just 23 minutes of racing, he carved his way through the field with some of the fastest lap times on the circuit. In a blistering finale as darkness fell, he picked off three rivals in a single move and then bypassed Arthur Leclerc’s AF Corse Ferrari to salvage ninth overall.
The recovery drive even caught the eye of Lando Norris, who watched the action unfold during a Twitch livestream and expressed amazement at the charge from P24 to P9. Up front, victory went to the #17 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed entry steered by Ralf Aron, Fabian Schiller, and Maximilian Gotz, ahead of the #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche and the #2 Boutsen VDS Porsche. Meanwhile, other notable performances saw Australian driver Calan Williams take third in the Bronze Cup alongside Javier Sagrera and Ahmad Al Harthy in their BMW, while Christian Mansell fought from 43rd to 13th overall before his team's race was hampered by bad luck.
