BALANCE DEFINES OPENING DAY FOR GTC AND TOURING CARS

The first free practice session for the GTC and Touring Car categories of the opening round of Supercars Endurance, held this Friday at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, immediately confirmed the enormous technical diversity of the 2026 grid, with McLaren, Porsche, Ligier and Ginetta machinery — as well as the new BMW M2 Racing — sharing the circuit in a session marked by close competition across several divisions.

At the top of the overall classification was the Ligier JS2 R entered by Chefo Sport by Petrogold and driven by Máximo Varela and Gabriel Caçoilo. The pairing set the fastest lap of the session with a 1m54.467s, finishing just 0.221s ahead of the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS of Speedy Motorsport, driven by Pompeu Simões and Rafael Lobato, with the two pairings emerging as the quickest runners in GTX.

Third overall proved to be one of the standout stories of the session. Daniel Teixeira placed the JT59 Racing Team Hyundai Elantra N TCR in third position outright, while also securing the lead in the TC+ division, marking a very solid start for the three-time Touring Cars division champion.

Fourth overall went to another Ligier JS2 R from Chefo Sport by Petrogold, entrusted to Ángel Santos and Alejandro Iribas, winners of the 2025 Supercars España GTX division.

In GTX Am, Tiago Loureiro and Breno Arruda put the TRS McLaren 570S GT4 at the top of the division with a lap of 1m57.400s. Their closest rivals in class, Nicole Drought and Lucas Fothergill, in the Protech Motorsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS, finished just 1.363s behind.

The Cup division once again featured an extremely compact field. Ángel Lanchares placed the Lan GP Racing Porsche 911 Cup at the head of the category with a 1m59.827s lap, edging Adam Fawsitt’s Art of Speed Porsche 911 Cup by only 0.315s. Third position went to Marcus Fothergill and Dave Benett in the Protech Motorsport-run Porsche 911 Cup.

One of the major novelties of the weekend is the presence of Francisca ‘Kika’ Queiroz at the wheel of a brand-new BMW M2 Racing entered by LOB Motorsport, which finished 23rd overall in what marked the first-ever circuit appearance of a BMW M2 Cup Iberia car on the Iberian Peninsula.

The GTC and Touring Car races of the Iberian Supercars, Supercars España Championship and Campeonato de Portugal de Velocidade will be broadcast live on DAZN Portugal and DAZN Spain, as well as on Race Ready’s official YouTube channel in Spanish, with additional international coverage available in English, German and Italian, alongside Brazilian coverage through Braking Zone TV. The first race will take place this Saturday at 4:30pm, while the second race is scheduled for Sunday at 12:50pm, both forming part of the Algarve Iberian Racing Weekend programme.