BMW M Motorsport's customer teams ended the 2026 GT World Challenge Europe season in Portimão with more silverware. Team WRT clinched the overall team championship, combining Sprint and Endurance results, while ROWE Racing's #998 crew of Jens Klingmann, Tim Tramnitz and Ugo de Wilde took the Endurance Gold Cup drivers' title and their team won the corresponding team championship.
The finale also produced a race win: the #30 BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Team WRT finished fifth overall and first in the Silver Cup, sealing the overall title in dramatic fashion.
How the title was won
Team WRT arrived at the finale having already secured the Sprint Team Championship two weeks earlier, so the overall crown, which combines Sprint and Endurance results, was the remaining prize. The #30 car shared by Matisse Lismont, Amaury Cordeel and Ignacio Montenegro delivered it with fifth overall and Silver Cup victory in the final three-hour race. The same crew had already locked up the Silver Cup titles in the Sprint, Endurance and combined standings before the weekend began.
Team principal Vincent Vosse called it the team's 80th title and credited the Silver car for a huge part of the achievement, while noting the Pro cars had issues and did not deliver the result the team wanted.
Gold Cup glory for ROWE Racing
Klingmann, Tramnitz and de Wilde came to Portimão leading the Endurance Gold Cup standings, the same trio that won the Gold Cup class at the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in the summer aboard the #998 BMW M4 GT3 EVO. A second place in the Gold Cup at the finale was enough to secure both the drivers' title and the Endurance Gold Cup team championship for ROWE Racing.
Klingmann said the season goal was to win the Gold Cup and Spa, and that the team was not always the fastest but was the most consistent. De Wilde admitted the title came down to the final minutes of the race. Team principal Hans-Peter Naundorf described it as ROWE's first season in the Gold Cup and said the mission was accomplished.
A hard day for the Pro entries
The overall race itself slipped away from BMW's Pro cars. The ROWE #98 of Marco Wittmann, Jake Dennis and Philipp Eng started 35th after a difficult qualifying, climbed as high as sixth or seventh in Wittmann's telling, then lost ground with a puncture after contact from behind; the car was classified 22nd overall, though Wittmann himself quotes 24th. He believes a top-five was possible.
The Team WRT #32 ran sixth early before Jordan Pepper served a drive-through penalty for causing a collision; late in the race Kelvin van der Linde was hit by a rival, the same fate as Eng, and suffered a puncture. Pepper, Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde finished 30th.
The #46 of Valentino Rossi, Neil Verhagen and Max Hesse punctured on the first lap, dropped to 60th, fought back to 14th and then retired with a mechanical failure. Hesse's quote confirms the trio now need to analyse the technical issue that ended their race.
Bronze Cup podium
The #42 BMW M4 GT3 EVO run by Oman Racing by Century Motorsport took third in the Bronze Cup with Ahmad Al Harthy, Javier Sagrera and Calan Williams sharing driving duties. The Paradine Competition #991, driven by Darren Leung, James Kellett and Robert de Haan, finished fourth in the class.
