Max Verstappen has spoken out against the online abuse directed at Chris Lulham following the 3 Hours of Portim\u00e3o, the final round of the 2026 GT World Challenge Europe season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Red Bull Formula 1 driver publicly defended his teammate after the British racer became the target of offensive comments on social media following an incident that compromised the result of the No. 3 Mercedes-AMG GT3 entered by Verstappen Racing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The crew, which also included Ben Barnicoat, eventually finished ninth after an impressive recovery drive from Verstappen, who gained 15 positions during the final stint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The controversy centred on contact between Lulham and the No. 11 Mercedes, which resulted in a drive-through penalty and a significant loss of positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The race had started promisingly for the Verstappen Racing crew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite a challenging qualifying session, Barnicoat delivered an excellent opening stint, climbing to second position before handing over the car after 66 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lulham rejoined the race in eighth place, but contact with another Mercedes prompted the stewards to issue a drive-through penalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sanction dropped the car to 16th, undoing much of the progress made during the opening phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the time Verstappen took over for the final stint, the No. 3 Mercedes had fallen to 24th position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The four-time Formula 1 World Champion immediately began working his way through the field, also benefiting from a Safety Car period that brought the pack closer together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the closing stages, Verstappen completed a series of overtakes to bring the Mercedes home in ninth place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the recovery, Lulham’s incident triggered a wave of criticism on social media, with some comments escalating into personal attacks against the young British driver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Verstappen responded publicly, making it clear that such behaviour has no place in motorsport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Dutchman acknowledged that fans are entitled to express their opinions about incidents on track but stressed that sporting criticism should never turn into harassment or personal abuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also defended Lulham’s performance, pointing out that his teammate had shown competitive pace and that mistakes are an inevitable part of racing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Verstappen’s message highlighted the importance of respecting drivers, even when their actions on track lead to disappointing results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beyond the controversy, Verstappen expressed satisfaction with his first appearance in the GT World Challenge Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Portim\u00e3o event provided another opportunity for the Dutch driver to compete in GT3 machinery, a category in which he has shown increasing interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although the weekend was far from straightforward, the team demonstrated encouraging potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The No. 3 Mercedes showed strong pace throughout the race, first with Barnicoat during the opening stint and later with Verstappen’s recovery drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final ninth-place finish did not fully reflect the crew’s competitiveness, but the sporting result was ultimately overshadowed by the online reaction to Lulham’s penalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By publicly supporting his teammate, Verstappen delivered a clear message: racing incidents can be debated and criticised, but they should never become an excuse for personal abuse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Max Verstappen has spoken out against the online abuse directed at Chris Lulham following the 3 Hours of Portim\u00e3o, the final round of the 2026 GT World Challenge Europe season. The Red Bull Formula 1 driver publicly defended his teammate after the British racer became the target of offensive comments on social media following an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gt-world-challenge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2221"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2223,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2221\/revisions\/2223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}