Lance Stroll's team performed poorly in the GT race.

      Lance Stroll's debut in GT3 racing yesterday was clearly unsuccessful, but not because the Canadian and his teammates were not fast enough behind the wheel of the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo. The crew of car No. 18, consisting of the Canadian Formula 1 driver, Roberto Merhi, and Marie Boy, finished only in 48th place and was second to last among those who finished in the first round of the European GT World Challenge series, held at the Paul Ricard circuit in France. During the 6-hour race, they accumulated almost 8 and a half penalty minutes and lost several laps to the leaders, although they started from the 15th position based on qualifying results. However, Boy received a Stop&Go penalty for colliding with one of the rival cars, plus the team was issued four minutes for ignoring blue flags, and another three minutes and 40 seconds were added for several track limit violations committed by Stroll and Merhi. Meanwhile, journalists observing the race at Paul Ricard noted that when Stroll took over the wheel, which happened already at dusk, he was completing laps at a normal pace and with quite decent results. But, of course, the rookies lacked experience in endurance racing. Their result sharply contrasts with the success of another crew from the Belgian team Comtoyou Racing, for which they were competing: the trio consisting of Danes Niki Thiim and Marco Sørensen, as well as Mattia Drudi from San Marino, celebrated victory in France. Their Aston Martin with the number 007 crossed the finish line just 0.806 seconds ahead of the Mercedes of Lukas Auer, Luca Stolz, and Maro Engel. In fact, this crew, starting from pole position, was favored to win, but the Comtoyou Racing team got lucky when a safety car came out at a favorable moment for them towards the end of the race. The leaders' advantage was neutralized, and Niki Thiim did not falter in this situation, pressuring Auer and forcing him to make a mistake, after which he moved ahead. This is Aston Martin's first victory in the European GT World Challenge series after the triumph of the same crew in the "24 Hours of Spa" in 2024.