Last weekend’s 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, the second round of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship, saw several historical moments and key milestones achieved.
This was the first ACO-rules overall win for BMW since the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans. The V12 LMR did win in the UK however in 2000 in the American Le Mans Series
Its last overall victory for a factory-entered effort in a FIA World Championship came in 2021, when Jake Dennis won in FIA Formula E’s London ePrix.
With this victory, Team WRT now has the unique record of having taken an overall win, plus class wins in the two current, and the third most recent, classes in the FIA WEC. The Belgian outfit has scored multiple LMP2 victories, won in LMGT3 at the 2024 6 Hours of Imola, and now overall and in Hypercar.
All three drivers in the #20 BMW scored their first overall wins. René Rast and Robin Frijns have both previously won in LMP2, whilst this is Sheldon van der Linde’s first victory in any class.
South African van der Linde, notably, is the second African driver after Angola’s Rui Andrade to claim a class victory, and the first to win a race outright.
This means that an overall FIA WEC race winner has now hailed from all six inhabited continents.
The win for the 2026-spec M Hybrid V8 continues a remarkable run of seven different Hypercar models (from six different manufacturers) taking overall wins in the last seven FIA WEC events.
The race saw the global first win for the updated version of the car, and also Team WRT’s first overall win in any competition with a current top-class prototype.
The victory is all the more impressive considering that the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps has traditionally not been a strong venue for the BMW and WRT partnership in FIA WEC competition. Prior to 2026, it had only recorded two Top 10 finishes in class, with 10th in Hypercar and ninth in LMGT3 last year.
As well as BMW scoring its first FIA WEC victory, two further manufacturers also achieved their best-ever result in the championship.
Aston Martin’s fourth-place finish was one better than its previous best, fifth at Fuji last year, whilst Genesis picked up its first championship points in eighth.
Genesis Magma Racing has maintained its 100% finishing record, with both GMR-001 Hypercars reaching the chequered flag.
And with the Korean marque scoring points, all eight Hypercar manufactures are now off the mark in this year’s manufacturers’ championship, after only two races.
14 of the 17 Hypercar crews have scored drivers’ championship points, whilst 16 of the 18 LMGT3 cars have already scored points this season.
BMW now leads a FIA WEC manufacturers’ championship for the first time.
Garage 59 has scored its first victory in just its second LMGT3 start, with the three drivers in the #10 McLaren, Antares Au, Tom Fleming and Marvin Kirchhöfer, all first-time winners.
LMGT3, therefore, has started 2026 with six different first-time victors, with this result following the win for the #69 Team WRT BMW of Anthony McIntosh, Parker Thompson and Dan Harper in Imola. Notably, all six drivers are contesting their first full FIA WEC season.
McLaren is the first manufacturer to win in LMGT3 with two different teams, with this victory joining United Autosports’ success at Lone Star Le Mans last year.
Garage 59’s victory is the 75th in a major FIA WEC class for a team representing the United Kingdom.
In the two events so far, across both classes, the only car to score a pair of podium finishes is the #92 The Bend Manthey Porsche, which has finished third in LMGT3 in both races.
The retirement for the #51 Ferrari, following contact with the #32 BMW, is the first for that car, and indeed any Ferrari 499P, since Fuji 2024.
Featured image courtesy of Frozenspeed
