Penalty ends Verstappen's hopes of winning the Portimao GT finale

[Rob98]

Max Verstappen's GT racing weekend at Portimao ended in frustration. PlanetF1's Mat Coch reports that a drive through penalty ended Team Verstappen's hopes of winning the GT World Challenge Europe season finale, despite a strong late charge from the four time world champion

Ben Barnicoat started the number 3 Mercedes AMG GT3 and moved up to tenth. After a safety car, Chris Lulham dived up the inside at Turn 8 and spun Luca Stolz's Mercedes, which dropped Stolz to 39th. Lulham was given a drive through penalty, which he served with 53 minutes remaining

Verstappen took over in 24th place with 45 minutes to go. He then put on a show, passing drivers including Jamie Day, Thomas Fleming and Arthur Leclerc to climb into ninth with three laps left. He finished just three tenths of a second behind eighth place

Fabian Schiller won the race in the number 17 Mercedes, ahead of the number 80 and number 2 Porsches. The result follows the reprimand Verstappen received in practice, which we discussed earlier in the weekend

Climbing from 24th to ninth in 45 minutes shows his speed in any car. It was not the result he wanted, but it was entertaining to watch. Sadly, PlanetF1 also reports that Lulham has received online abuse since the race, which nobody deserves

Was the penalty fair? And how much does Verstappen's GT racing help his F1 career?

Max Verstappen's Portimao charge falls short after penaltywww.planetf1.com