GT World Challenge kicks off

The season opens with a six-hour race that starts at 6:00 p.m. local time on Saturday, April 11, and runs into the night at Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, France, on a 5.791-kilometer track with 15 turns. (gt-world-challenge-europe.com) This is the Endurance Cup side of GT World Challenge Europe, which means each car has three drivers sharing one machine for one long race instead of one driver doing a short sprint. The opening round sits at Paul Ricard before the calendar moves later to Monza, the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa, the Nürburgring, and Portimão. (gt-world-challenge-europe.com) The field is crowded enough that qualifying was split into three sessions, one for each driver in a lineup, and the combined times set the grid. Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER put the No. 48 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO on pole after Lucas Auer, Luca Stolz, and Maro Engel topped the combined classification. (gt-world-challenge-europe.com) The margins were tiny. The official qualifying sheets show the No. 48 car ahead of the No. 58 Garage 59 McLaren by 0.054 seconds, with the No. 7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin another 0.010 seconds back. (gt-world-challenge-europe.com) One reason this opener is getting extra attention is Lance Stroll showing up in the No. 18 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin for his GT3 debut alongside Roberto Merhi and Mari Boya. Their car qualified 15th for Saturday’s race after Stroll drove the middle segment of the three-part session. (gt-world-challenge-europe.com, gpfans.com) Another familiar name is Valentino Rossi, who is back with Team WRT in the No. 46 BMW M4 GT3 EVO alongside Daniel Harper and Max Hesse. That BMW qualified 11th, which puts it in the middle of the pack in a race where traffic and pit timing usually decide as much as raw speed. (gt-world-challenge-europe.com, gpfans.com) The manufacturer spread is the other story at Paul Ricard. The official entry list includes Mercedes-AMG, Aston Martin, BMW, Ferrari, Porsche, McLaren, Audi, Corvette, and Ford, which turns the first round into a live comparison test for nine brands before the championship settles into a pecking order. (gt-world-challenge-europe.com) Ferrari arrives especially deep, with seven Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO cars entered across the classes, including the No. 50 AF Corse car of Lilou Wadoux, Arthur Leclerc, and Sean Gelael and the No. 51 AF Corse car of Alessio Rovera, Nicklas Nielsen, and Tommaso Mosca. When one brand brings that many cars, it gets more chances to hit on the right setup and strategy on day one. (ferrari.com, gt-world-challenge-europe.com) Paul Ricard is a useful opener because teams get a long race, a night finish, and a track that usually rewards clean execution more than one wild lap. By the end of Saturday night, the series will already have answers on which cars are quick over one lap, which crews can triple-stint tires, and which pit walls stay calm when 50-plus GT3 cars are fighting for space. (circuitpaulricard.com, gt-world-challenge-europe.com) That is why clips from the opening hours travel so fast. A viral onboard or a “send” into a corner is the visible part, but the real story at Paul Ricard is that the first grid of 2026 is already showing who has qualifying speed, who has depth across three drivers, and who starts the year digging out of traffic before lap one is over. (x.com, gt-world-challenge-europe.com)