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Titles, plural. The BMW M4 GT3 EVO signed off the GT World Challenge Europe season at Portimão with a fistful of silverware. Team WRT sealed the overall team championship, adding to the Sprint crown it grabbed a fortnight earlier. ROWE Racing pocketed the Endurance Gold Cup team title in its very first season in the class. For BMW M Motorsport, the Algarve finale turned into a proper celebration.
The star of the three-hour race wore number 30. Matisse Lismont, Amaury Cordeel and Ignacio Montenegro hustled their WRT M4 home in fifth overall. That run also delivered a Silver Cup class victory, the crew’s first in an Endurance round this year. They had already wrapped up the Silver Cup titles across Sprint, Endurance and the combined standings. Lismont called it one of the team’s most complete performances of the season.
ROWE’s #998 car had a different mission. Jens Klingmann, Tim Tramnitz and Ugo de Wilde arrived leading the Gold Cup standings, buoyed by their class win at the 24 Hours of Spa. Second place in class at Portimão was enough to seal the drivers’ crown. Klingmann openly admitted they were not always the quickest crew on the grid. Relentless consistency, he said, won it for them.
The Pro entries told a harsher story. Marco Wittmann, Jake Dennis and Philipp Eng clawed forward from 35th on the grid until contact left them with a puncture, and they finished 22nd. The #32 WRT car ran sixth early, then a drive-through penalty and another puncture dropped it to 30th. Valentino Rossi’s #46 machine retired after a puncture and a mechanical failure. Portimão gave with one hand and snatched with the other.
Still, the scoreboard speaks loudest. WRT team principal Vincent Vosse hailed the squad’s 80th title as a huge achievement. ROWE boss Hans-Peter Naundorf reckoned the weekend could not have gone any better. In the Bronze Cup, Oman Racing by Century Motorsport and Paradine Competition added third and fourth in class for good measure. The M4 GT3 EVO ends the year with a trophy cabinet that is fit to burst.
