•    Aust Motorsport’s Maxim Dirickx makes history with emotional title success
•    Dirickx and Nigel Moore combine to earn lights-to-flag win in Spa race two
•    Emil Hellberg takes second overall win of 2026 in Safety Car impacted race one
•    Dirickx wins Junior Championship, Aust take Team title, Hellberg Trophy champ 

Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium (4 September 2026):
Emotions flowed at Spa-Francorchamps this evening as Belgium’s Maxim Dirickx made history by becoming the inaugural Prototype Cup Europe Champion, and also the Prototype Cup Europe Junior Champion, after securing a lights-to-flag victory in the season finale at the famous Ardennes track.

Teaming with Nigel Moore in the No.3 Aust Motorsport Ligier JS P325, Dirickx went into the last race of the campaign with a very slim advantage of three points over GMS Team’s Valentino Catalano, having moved back to the top of the championship earlier in the day with second place in race one. 

Victory in the second encounter, Dirickx’s third outright success of the season and Moore’s second, also ensured the Prototype Cup Europe Team Championship for Aust Motorsport by only five points from GMS Team. 

Emil Hellberg, who secured his second overall win in as many events in the first of the weekend’s encounters, is the 2026 Prototype Cup Europe Trophy Champion with a perfect score of 200 points, having taken a clean sweep of Trophy wins in all eight of the season’s races. The Allay Racing Ligier driver also concludes the championship third in the overall standings eight points shy of Catalano.

Maxim Dirickx – Prototype Cup Europe Champion, Junior Champion and Race Two Winner:
“It was a stressful race, stressful weekend, but I can’t congratulate the team enough, they did an amazing job, Nigel [Moore] did an amazing job and I just had to bring it home. I’m emotional right now, I tried to keep my cool, tried to bring it home – we can’t be much more happy can we? I don’t show emotion that much, but this is just such an emotional moment, we worked so hard for it. I’m super happy to bring it home!”

The opening contest of the weekend began on an all-but fully dry track, following wet and drying qualifying early on Friday morning, and Mattis Pluschkell did manage to lead into La Source from pole in the No.8 BWT Mücke Motorsport Duqueine D09, but an engine sensor issue sapped top-end speed and he was swamped on the run to Eau Rouge – passed by Catalano and Dirickx.

As the cars headed uphill to Raidillon, the Larea GT1 Racing Duqueine of series debutant Torsten Kratz got out of shape and was pitched into the barriers. Thankfully Kratz was unharmed, but lengthy barrier repairs were required. The action didn’t resume until well into the second half of the race, with Catalano ahead of Dirickx, Pluschkell, and Emil and Linus Hellberg’s Allay Racing Ligiers.

The issues hampering Pluschkell continued and, despite his best efforts, he ultimately slipped back after the re-start with the Hellberg brothers profiting. Catalano was able to open a small lead before pitting for the driver-change with just under a third of the race to go, handing over to Danny Soufi. 

Dirickx also pitted at the same time from second, Moore climbing aboard the No.3 Aust car, as Emil Hellberg inherited the lead on-track before then pitting the next time around. When all stops were complete Hellberg led by just under four seconds from his brother Linus with Moore third, but the latter didn’t waste any time in passing the No.43 car and setting his sights on the leader.

Emil, though, made no mistakes and took the win by a couple of seconds from Moore, with Linus third from Soufi – the No.11 GMS Team entry lost around 10 seconds due to a penalty linked to an infringement in the pit-stops. Markus Pommer was fifth in the No.18 Duqueine shared with Mads Kjelde Larsen Larsen, the No.74 Team Virage Ligier of Theo Micouris and Dominique Bastien sixth.

Emil Hellberg – Prototype Cup Europe Trophy Champion and Race One Winner:
“It was a good race, I am super happy. They made it a little bit easy with the Safety Car in the beginning, but as soon as the barrier was fixed it was just flat out trying to get it! It was so much fun, just a great race.”

Moore lined-up on pole position for race two and although challenged hard into La Source on the inside by Micouris, the Briton was able to remain ahead as the cars powered downhill. Soufi held third from Emil Helberg, as Moore made an early break, and into the second racing lap the leader had built a cushion of more than two seconds. 

Micouris gradually edged away from Soufi over the next few laps while, just a little further back, Óscar Tunjo was making major progress after passing both Pommer and Helberg. Showing his pace, the now fourth placed Tunjo set fastest lap at that point in the No.12 GMS Team Ligier.

With nothing in it in terms of the championship, and differing pit-stop times for the teams based on success penalties and driver gradings, there was a huge amount at stake. Moore continued to lead, even with a slight moment while pushing hard, but Micouris, Soufi and Tunjo started to close in. 

With 32 minutes to go the pit window opened and the No.8 BWT Mücke was the first to stop from eighth place, Tobias Bille Clausen handing over the car to Pluschkell. Of the lead group Tunjo pitted soonest, Jacob Williamson climbing aboard the No.12 Ligier, while the top three continued and Moore eked out the gap to 2.5s by the time he pitted with 23 minutes to go. Micouris followed suit. 

Soufi had already stopped to hand over the No.11 car to Catalano so, when the order settled, champion-elect Dirickx had the lead of the race in the No.3 Aust Ligier from Catalano by 3.8s. Emil Hellberg was third after passing Bastien in the No.74, but more than 10 seconds shy of the top two and he lost more ground as the race unfolded. 

Although the lead ebbed and flowed on occasion during the closing minutes, Dirickx claimed the outright championship with victory 3.5s clear of series runner-up Catalano. Pluschkell charged through the order very impressively to take BWT Mücke back onto the podium in third, passing Emil Hellberg late on who finished eight seconds clear of his brother Linus. 

The 2027 season of Prototype Cup Europe action will begin across the weekend 19/20/21 March at Mugello in Italy as support to the Michelin 24H SERIES European Series. For all the latest news from Prototype Cup Europe visit www.prototype-cup-europe.com