Barcelona, Spain – Al Manar Racing by Team WRT’s Al Faisal al Zubair, Jens Klingmann and Ben Tuck won the combined GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Teams’ Sprint and Endurance Teams’ title in the Gold Cup category at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Sunday.

By rounding off their 2025 campaign with a magnificent second position in the overall standings at the final endurance round, they also finished as runners-up to the Verstappen Racing.com trio of Thierry Vermeulen, Chris Lulham and Harry King in the Gold Cup Endurance Drivers’ and Teams’ standings.

The BMW M4 GT3 EVO trio finished the race as runners-up to the triumphant Garage 59 McLaren team of Louise Prette, Dean Macdonald and Adam Smalley.

Oman-based Al Zubair said: “This was an amazing way to end the season with second overall and second in class as well. That goes to show how strong the Gold Cup has been this year. I am extremely happy with how the whole season went. I think the Verstappen car deserved to win the championship. They were very strong throughout. 

“To take my first overall podium in the GT World Challenge and to be second is amazing with the best drivers in the world in this championship. Qualifying was a bit difficult but in the race the strategy worked well and the track temperatures were better. That suited our engine. It all worked perfectly. It was a great way to end the season. The strategy was the key today. This is something I have always aimed for and, to do it today, was icing on the cake.”

The three-hour race started under a second formation lap but the action was stopped around the half-hour mark following a heavy collision between the Kessel Racing Ferrari and the Winward Racing Mercedes.

The yellow flag and the safety car controlled the next 17-18 minutes of the race and several teams, including Al Manar Racing, opted to make a premature driver change under the safety car around the 45-minute mark. Al Zubair had slipped to sixth before climbing back to fifth in the Gold Cup standings.

Al Zubair handed over to Tuck with 20 laps on the clock and 12 minutes left of the first stint. Initially, they slipped to seventh in the Gold Cup standings but the pit stop proved to be a master stroke and Tuck duly climbed to fourth and then third in the Gold Cup standings behind the Optimum Motorsport and Garage 59 McLarens.

Racing resumed with 2hr 01min on the clock and Tuck maintained third in the Gold Cup standings and climbed to fifth in the overall classification. The Briton settled into a comfortable pace as the second stint unfolded and retained third in the Gold Cup. He then overtook Leonardo Moncini in the Tresor Attempto Audi to snatch fourth overall just before the halfway mark of the race.

Tuck then passed Oliver Söderström in the Walkenhorst Motorsport Aston Martin to snatch third. It meant that Gold Cup cars held the three overall leading positions in the race after 44 laps.

A stranded BMW forced a short full course yellow with 1hr 22min on the clock with light drizzle starting to fall on the circuit. Tuck managed to climb to second after the restart behind the Garage 59 McLaren when the Optimum Motorsport car made its final pit stop and lifted the Verstappen.com Aston Martin into third in the Gold standings.

A heavy crash into the wall that involved one of the Tresor Attempto Racing Audis then brought out another yellow flag with 68 minutes remaining and teams frantically began to make their final pit stops.

Klingmann replaced Tuck and Prette took the wheel of the race-leading Garage 59 McLaren with speeds restricted to 80km/h by the Delta pace ruling. Racing resumed with 53 minutes remaining and Klingmann managed to stay in second position, despite having to pass a couple of back markers and coming under initial pressure from Arthur Le Clerc in the AF Corse Ferrari in the tussle for second overall.

By lap 64, with 45 minutes on the clock, the German continued to shadow the race-leading McLaren and he kept his cool to stay in second place. Rowe Racing’s Raffaele Marciello began to apply the pressure on Klingman in the closing laps after passing the AF Corse Ferrari and the Swiss racer reduced the gap to less than a second before passing the German with less than three minutes to run. But Klingmann was not to be denied and he re-passed the Pro class-winning BMW on the 91st and final lap to confirm a sensational second overall in a gripping season’s finale.

FINAL GOLD CUP STANDINGS

Teams (combined) 

1. Al Manar Racing by Team WRT 200pts

2. Garage 59 166pts

3. Verstappen.com Racing 121pts

4. Emil Frey Racing 118.5pts

5. CSA Racing 117pts,

6. Tresor Attempto Racing 114pts

Drivers (combined)

1. Chris Lulham/Thierry Vermeulen 239.5pts

2. Al Faisal al Zubair/Jens Klingmann 196pts

3. Louis Prette 164pts

4. Harry King 121pts

4. Sebastian Øgaard/Leonardo Moncini 111pts, etc