GT World Challenge - Paul Ricard Prologue- 2026
In a first for the series, the Prologue took place just a few days before the opening six-hour race, scheduled from 18:00 to midnight on Saturday. Two sessions were held on Wednesday, running from 09:00 to 13:00 and from 14:00 to 17:00, with all 59 entered cars taking to the track. Despite a handful of yellow flags and short stoppages, there were no major incidents. The fastest time of the day came in the morning, when Thomas Preining set a 1m54.682s in the #80 Lionspeed GP Porsche, narrowly beating Christopher Haase in the #84 Eastalent Racing Audi by 0.086s. In the afternoon, Ben Dörr topped the session in the #23 Team RJN McLaren with a 1m54.762s, which was good enough for second overall across both sessions, while Loek Hartog placed second in that session for Rutronik Racing.
The Prologue concluded on Thursday with a four-hour session at Circuit Paul Ricard, where Christopher Haase set the fastest time of the entire test, a 1m54.352s in the #84 Eastalent Racing Audi, three tenths quicker than Preining’s benchmark from the previous day. Alessio Picariello was second fastest in the #2 Boutsen VDS Porsche, followed by Ricardo Feller in another Lionspeed-run Porsche and Robert Renauer in the #91 Herberth Motorsport entry. The session featured two incidents involving Aston Martins: Jamie Day suffered a heavy crash at Turn 7 in the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport car, sustaining significant front-end damage but escaping injury, while Mari Boya hit the barriers after losing control exiting Turn 2 in the #18 Comtoyou Racing entry.
With the Prologue out of the way, we move straight into the first round of the series. Images and results to come from that to follow shortly…
