After Peugeot claimed its first FIA WEC pole position yesterday, it was BMW’s turn to make history this afternoon at Spa-Francorchamps, as the Bavarian marque scored its maiden outright WEC victory with a combination of speed and strategy.
Local outfit Team WRT, which runs the M Hybrid V8s, performed the sort of strategic masterclass it has become renowned for in GT3 racing, taking the #20 entry of Rene Rast, Sheldon van der Linde and Robin Frijns off-strategy at the opening round of pit stops.
WRT short-fueled the car, giving Rast the lead from ninth overall and, more importantly, clean air. Now free from the Hypercar battle pack, the #20 BMW was both faster and more energy efficient than its rivals, with its advantage over its nearest typical strategy competition going from six seconds to as much as over 50 seconds before a Virtual Safety Car was deployed with just over two hours to go.
This cut Frijns’ margin down to just two seconds over the #8 Toyota TR010 Hybrid of Sebastien Buemi, as the Japanese marque had made a similar play to Team WRT after Brendon Hartley had spent the opening stint running in 15th.
Frijns set about metronomically rebuilding his advantage, only for another VSC to be called just as the final round of pit stops began. Critically, this VSC was deployed after Buemi had pitted, costing Toyota dearly and handing BMW a 1-2.
Frijns instantly vaulted into a two-second lead, only for an accident behind to immediately bring the Safety Car back out. This set up a 24-minute shootout for the win, with Kevin Magnussen in the #15 BMW acting as Frijns’ rear gunner.
The Dutchman again pulled away, bringing the #20 BMW home 1.969 seconds clear of the car Magnussen shared with Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor for the victory.
Not only is it BMW’s first FIA WEC win, and its first in ACO-rules racing since the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans, it is also a first outright FIA WEC victory for Team WRT and all three drivers.
The #50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P completed the podium, having recovered from a jammed wheel nut early on, ahead of the #007 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie and #7 Toyota Racing TR010 Hybrid.
The #83 AF Corse Ferrari was sixth, ahead of the #93 Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8, with the #17 Genesis Magma Racing GMR-001 an amazing eighth overall.
Ninth went to the #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R, which led early on, struggled in the second half of the race, particularly during a stint on softs, with the #8 Toyota winding up in 10th.
Genesis’ second car, the #19 GMR-001, finished 13th, after losing time in the opening hour with an electronic issue.
The #38 Cadillac was also delayed early, after Earl Bamber made contact with the #92 Porsche approaching Turn 12 in the opening hour. The hit caused Bamber to brush the barrier twice, damaging the left rear of his V-Series.R. A further mechanical issue, when Sebastien Bourdais was behind the wheel, subsequently forced the car into retirement.
Another retirement was the pole-sitting #94 Peugeot, after Malthe Jakobsen was unable to avoid a spinning #79 Mercedes-AMG at Les Combes. Jakobsen limped the car back to the pits before retiring, with this incident triggering the VSC deployment at the end of the fourth hour.
The next VSC was caused by an accident that eliminated the #51 Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi. Pier Guidi was collected entering La Source by the #32 BMW M4 LMGT3 Evo of Augusto Farfus, which had been hit by the #91 Porsche of Ayhancan Güven.
Finally, the last Safety Car was triggered by Alex Riberas, who went off after attempting to pass the #35 Alpine Endurance Team A424 of Antonio Felix Da Costa on the grass down the Kemmel Straight.
Da Costa himself then spun through Raidillon on the following restart, clipping the wall and having to take the #35 Alpine to the garage for repairs.
With poor results for both the #8 Toyota and #51 Ferrari, the top two cars at Imola, the drivers’ championship has been turned on its head. Rast and Frijns now lead, with a nine-point advantage over the #8 Toyota trio. van der Linde sits 10 points behind his teammates, having missed the 6 Hours of Imola.
BMW also now heads the manufacturers’ championship for the first time, with a seven-point margin over Toyota, who in turn are 10 points ahead of Ferrari.
In LMGT3, Garage 59 successfully avenged its Imola heartbreak, as the #10 McLaren LMGT3 Evo of Antares Au, Tom Fleming and Marvin Kirchhöfer charged through from 15th on the grid for victory.
The #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Evo won on the road, but the car was handed a five-second time penalty after Alessio Rovera was released unsafely into the path of Kirchhöfer during the final round of pit stops.
The Ferrari factory driver was unable to pull away from the McLaren ace during the final stint, with the #21 Ferrari falling to fourth in a tight LMGT3 pack.
Second, therefore, went to the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3, with the #92 Porsche recovering from its early incident to complete the podium and move into the championship lead.
The #34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R finished fifth on the road, but feel back to ninth due to a 10-second time penalty for a pit stop infringement, with the #58 Garage 59 McLaren LMGT3 Evo inheriting a top-five finish.
The Imola-winning #69 Team WRT BMW finished outside of the points-paying positions, in 11th.
Both Ford Mustang LMGT3 Evos enjoyed spells out front, with Eric Powell leading early on aboard the #77 Proton Competition entry after making a spectacular overtake around the outside of pole sitter Tom van Rompuy into Eau Rouge. Minutes later, however, the American went off at Stavelot, beaching himself in the gravel and bringing out the first Safety Car.
The sister #88 Ford then jumped van Rompuy’s #78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RCF LMGT3 at the opening round of pit stops, and would lead until the second round of stops, when it was passed in the pits itself by the #21 Ferrari, which led on the road until the chequered flag.
Behind, a strong double-stint from Fleming in the middle portion of the race saw the #10 McLaren climb from the edge of the top 10 up to second, on the bumper of the #21 Ferrari and into position to pressure the Italian squad into making its decisive unsafe release.
The next round of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship is the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which will be held from the 10th to the 14th of June.
