• Beaubelique and Pla guide 458 GT3 to double Pro-Am win and overall Race 1 victory
• Ricci sweeps Am in sister machine, adds outright honours in Race 2
• Results: Race 1 | Race 2
The French tricolour was ever-present above the podium when the GT3 Revival Series launched last weekend (11/12 April) at Circuit Paul Ricard. Local squad Storic and Race Cars was rampant on home turf, taking a clean sweep of class wins with its twin Ferrari entries.
The inaugural event was staged alongside GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, which kicked off its 2026 season with a six-hour enduro on Saturday evening. A stacked entry list featuring some of the biggest names in contemporary GT racing drew almost 40,000 spectators, who were also treated to some old-school appeal in the GT3 Revival Series paddock.
Jim Pla and Jean-Luc Beaubelique made history on Sunday morning. The French pairing earned the first-ever Pro-Am victory and finished at the head of the overall classification, sharing the Ferrari 458 in which Beaubelique won his class at the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa in 2013. Pla already had the Pro-Am result sewn up when, with three minutes left on the clock, he swept around the outside of the sister 458 driven by Am leader Benjamin Ricci to add the overall victory.
"I won with this car at Spa, so that's very nice," said Beaubelique after taking the opening race. "My teammate was very fast and did a great job." One of the youngest drivers on the grid, Pla certainly appeared to enjoy his stint aboard the old Ferrari.
It was a dream opener for the Storic and Race Cars entries as Ricci prevailed in the Am class. Running solo at the wheel of the same Ferrari in which he made his first GT start more than a decade ago, the Frenchman was in full control from lights to flag, only surrendering the outright lead to Pla during the final minutes.
"It's like riding a bike!" he said of reuniting with the car, which was also raced in period by his father Mauro. "I knew Jim was fast so I let him go, then tried to stay with him and see if there was an opportunity. It was very fun – these cars are amazing. "
The twin Ferraris took the chequered flag with a solid gap to Jonathan Mitchell (Scott Sport), who was second in the Am class aboard his Aston Martin V12 Vantage. Engine tones were a topic of discussion at Paul Ricard, and the Vantage may just have been the most attention-grabbing.
Heiko Neumann (Team Motopark) was fourth overall and completed the Am class podium in his Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, which was raced in period by grand prix winner Heinz-Harald Frentzen. The Christoph von Oeynhausen-driven BMW Z4 (Classic & Speed) and the Lamborghini Gallardo of Adam Balon and Phil Keen (Barwell Motorsport) rounded out the inaugural Pro-Am podium.
The front-row for Race 2 would not have looked out of place in a modern GT World Challenge race as Pla lined up alongside Alvaro Parente (Quinntech Racing). The Portuguese ace took the wheel of an Audi R8 formerly run by Team WRT and carrying the Leopard Racing livery used in 2015.
Pla got a good launch and immediately pulled clear, but there was a serious battle for top spot in Am. The class leaders had started together on the second row with Ricci ahead of Mitchell, but those positions were reversed by the fast-starting Aston Martin, which even nosed ahead of Parente for a few corners on the opening tour.
It took some work, but the Ferrari eventually got alongside the Aston on the pit straight as they began lap six. Mitchell chopped across Ricci at the opening chicane, but this put the Briton on the outside for the exit and the Ferrari drove past and into the class lead.
Once the pit stops were complete Beaubelique found himself a long way clear at the head of the field, Pla having built a formidable advantage. He would likely have remained unchallenged, but with 10 minutes left on the clock the race was neutralised to recover a stricken Audi.
Racing resumed with five minutes to go and Beaubelique now had the sister car of Ricci filling his mirrors. The chasing car had the legs on his teammate but had to be careful not to spoil the Pro-Am leader's day. There was pressure from behind, too, as Mitchell was looming.
On the penultimate lap Beaubelique went wide into the second sequence of corners and allowed Ricci the opportunity he needed to snatch the outright lead – and, crucially, gain some breathing space over Mitchell.
The Aston followed him through at the Mistral chicane, but Ricci had pulled a critical gap. They came home in this order, Ricci taking outright and Am honours ahead of Mitchell, with Beaubelique completing a Pro-Am sweep in second spot.
"I was trying, but Ben had the pace," said a smiling Mitchell afterwards. "I think he made one half-error during the whole race, so credit to him."
Behind Beaubelique, Von Oeynhausen applied a little late pressure in his BMW Z4 – another veteran of the 24 Hours of Spa – but could not get close enough to the Ferrari. The Neumann-driven Mercedes again completed the Am podium, edging the deep-blue Ford GT of Philippe Giauque (Debard Automobiles by Racetivity), with Mark Cole completing the Pro-Am rostrum in the Audi started by Parente.
It was notable that both races ran cleanly, with just one safety car period required to recover a minor incident. Nevertheless, there was plenty of wheel-to-wheel racing and even some door banging, particularly as the cars funnelled through the chicane to begin Race 2.
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But the opening weekend was not purely about competition. The GT3 Revival Series showcased the sheer variety of shapes, sizes and engine notes that made the new formula so distinctive when it launched 20 years ago. This drew a range of fans – many of them much younger than the machinery – to admire the paddock.
Notably, there were two cars on the entry list driven in period by Nicki Thiim, who won the headline GT World Challenge Europe race on Saturday evening. His fellow contemporary racers Christopher Haase, Marvin Kirchhöfer, Maxime Martin and Luca Stolz also had former machinery on the GT3 Revival Series grid.
The entry was varied in terms of teams, too. Contemporary squads such as Storic and Race Cars (the historic division of Jerome Policand’s ASP squad), Lionspeed GP and Barwell Motorsport went up against newer concerns, with a few family-run operations taking on the establishment.
The GT3 Revival Series stages its second event on 22–24 May as part of Spa Classic. An expanded entry is expected to tackle the event, which takes place at the circuit most closely aligned with the rise of GT3 racing.