Final race times and finishing order at Paul Ricard as Lance Stroll toils in GT3 debut

Lance Stroll and his Comtoyou Racing team had a penalty-hit evening during the Canadian's GT3 Racing debut, eventually finishing way down the order.

Stroll was racing in the pro-class of the GT World Challenge Europe season opener at the Circuit Paul Ricard, the former home of the F1 French Grand Prix.

It was a six-hour endurance race held in both light and dark conditions, and it was the No.7 Aston Martin car which took the overall victory.

The trio of Marco Sorensen, Nicki Thiim and Mattia Drudi claimed the win in their Aston Martin Vantage GT3, one of seven Aston Martin cars which entered the weekend's schedule.

They took the victory away from the No. 48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Maro Engel, Luca Stolz and Lucas Auer, after a late safety car which bunched the field up when Engel and co had been dominating the race.

Stroll actually completed all of his running in the dark at the Circuit Paul Ricard, with team-mates Mari Boya and Roberto Merhi taking on the first two stints in the light and sunset conditions respectively.

Stroll's team-mate Boya picked up a stop-and-go penalty during the first stint for an incident with the No.50 AF Corse Ferrari of Sean Gelael, with Boya spinning Gelael.

That put Stroll's No.18 team on the back foot, and after Merhi had picked up some more penalties, they eventually finished all the way down in 48th position, second last of all the remaining runners overall, and behind even the Gold, Silver and Bronze Cup runners.

Stroll himself performed well, however, putting in some very respectable lap times that were matching the top-10 runners around the Circuit Paul Ricard.

For Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing, Max Verstappen's GT3 racing team, Jules Gounon was struggling with food poisoning, but took on a mammoth second stint for the team, sounding increasingly ill over team radio.

That trio of Gounon, Chris Lulham and Daniel Juncadella finished ninth overall.

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GT World Challenge Europe Results: Paul Ricard 2026

* - Verstappen Racing trio of Juncadella, Gounon and Lulham. ** - Valentino Rossi's BMW, he raced alongside Daniel Harper and Max Hesse. *** - Lance Stroll's team, alongside Mari Boya and Roberto Merhi.

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Sam Cook - Digital Journalist

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