Verstappen.com Racing second in class in GTWC Endurance debut at Paul Ricard

Published on 14 April 2025 by Niels Hendrix

Verstappen.com Racing supports, for the first time, an entry into the highly competitive GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup (GTWC Endurance). Verstappen.com Racing fields two of its own drivers, Thierry Vermeulen and Chris Lulham, alongside the 24-year-old Harry King. The trio shares an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, run by the 2 Seas Motorsport team, across the five rounds of the highly anticipated GTWC Endurance championship.

This weekend, during the first round of the GTWC Endurance, Paul Ricard in France hosted a six-hour race, in which the Verstappen.com Racing team finished ninth overall and second in their class (gold). A great start to the season.

Thierry Vermeulen, who started the race from twelfth position overall, said: “I just wanted to say that we’re all extremely proud that the Verstappen.com Racing team and the project have started. I think we all worked extremely hard over the winter to be here at Paul Ricard. Those first laps were a big learning curve, to get to know the car in a race scenario with other cars around us. But I think we did extremely well. We stayed out of trouble in those first two stints. We had good pace, especially considering we had a difficult start to the weekend with some technical issues. Everyone at the team worked extremely hard to bounce back and that’s exactly what we did, so I am quite proud of that.” Chris Lulham took over the steering wheel from Vermeulen and made his debut in a real racing car, after having been promoted from Team Redline, the simracing team of Verstappen.com Racing. He elaborates on the differences between real and virtual racing: “I would say traffic management, the brutality of the race and different variables that you’re not used to, such as tyre pickup and the dust. It all has a very significant effect on the balance of the car, the feeling you have underneath you. To me this is the biggest learning curve and probably where I lost the most time, but also there’s room to improve. But overall, I’m very happy.”

Harry King, who drove the final two stints, concluded: “I jumped in the car for a double stint, which was two hours. I picked up the car in 15th position and we were about fourth in class, so we had a bit of work to do. I managed to fight my way through the field, stayed focused, stayed motivated for two hours. We just clinched second place on the final fifteen minutes of the race. The majority of the challenges was just staying focused and chipping away. Of course, it’s very easy to get very relaxed once you've accomplished an overtake, but my ambition was to aim higher and to go for the win. We finished one step short of that, but all things considered this weekend, I think it’s a really strong performance from everybody, from the team, from the pit stops to the engineering and also my teammates Chris and Thierry. So big credit to them and it’s been a pleasure to join them in my first round here.”