Toyota Racing’s TR010s were untouchable in the first ever 6 Hours of Barcelona. The Japanese brand’s Hypercars dominated throughout the race in wet, drying and fully dry conditions, securing the brand’s eighth FIA WEC Manufacturers’ World Championship in 14 seasons with a 1-2 finish.
For the #8 drivers, Sébastien Buemi (who won on his 100th start), Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa, it was a second consecutive victory and a third on the season. Their teammates in the #7 (Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck de Vries and Mike Conway) kept it close, finishing in formation behind, but ultimately never challenged the #8 it took the lead on the opening lap in the rain.
The end result also means that in the Hypercar Drivers’ World Championship, only the two Toyota crews remain in the hunt heading into next month’s season finale at Monza.
“It’s an amazing day,” Buemi said. “Last year we suffered a lot but we came back as a team with an upgraded car, won four races including Le Mans with the sister car. Now we can give our very best at Monza.”
Hartley added: “I’m not thinking about the Drivers’ Championship now, today is about the team. It’s a great feeling right now.”
Ferrari AF Corse’s #50 499P came closest to breaking the Toyota deadlock, coming home third after a metronomic performance from local hero Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen and Antonio Fuoco to claim silverware from eighth on the grid. But the Toyotas were so fast on wet and dry tyres, and so strong on tyre life, that even after the final restart with two hours to go, Fuoco was unable to mount a challenge, crossing the line 39 seconds off the winners.
The #83 privateer 499P also had a strong showing, but finished fifth behind the #38 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac, which managed to over-cut the 2025 Le Mans winners with a late splash and take a surprise fourth. Ferrari’s other factory car; the #51, was fast in the wet early on but suffered a disastrous outing, battling issues with the speed limiter and losing time to an off into the gravel, eventually finishing two laps down in 15th.
Meanwhile, after snatching all the Saturday headlines, Genesis Magma Racing’s hopes of a breakthrough result evaporated on the first lap of the race. After the GMR-001s ran 1-2 into Turn 1, with Dani Juncadella taking the lead in the #19 from pole-sitter Andre Lotterer in the sister car, the Spaniard suffered a trip through the gravel at Turn 5 as Buemi found a way past Lotterer.
Both cars went backwards from there. They struggled in the wet, suffering multiple offs and the #17 was handed a drive-through for an FCY infringement and a second one for a safety car infringement. After a tough six hours, the #19 ended up 11th with the sister car 16th.
It was a day to forget for BMW’s Hypercar team too, with the Bavarian brand, like Ferrari, having its title hopes come to an end before the season finale.
The #15 crew pushed hard, but could only muster seventh after the final safety car four hours into the race, and the sister car failed to score points after a decision to stay out at the first VSC when everyone else pitted and a tyre pressure issue left Sheldon van der Linde, Rene Rast and Robin Frijns on the back foot for the whole race.
LMGT3 was won by the #92 The Bend Manthey Porsche of Goodyear Wingfoot Award winner Yasser Shahin, Riccardo Pera and Richard Lietz. The trio put in a performance as dominant as the winning Toyota to claim their first win of the season and first top 10 finish since Interlagos and ensure the class title fights will go down to the wire.
Remarkably, they became the seventh crew in seven races to win in LMGT3, breaking the record for most different winners in a single WEC GT class in a season.
Marvin Kirchhöfer muscled his way to second in the class in the closing minutes for Garage 59. The British McLaren partner team’s #10 GT3 Evo recovered well from an early drive through to deny Dan Harper and the #69 WRT BMW trio the runner’s up spot.
Behind the #69, the Racing Team Turkey Corvette was fourth. The #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari had a quiet run to fifth.
TF Sport and solo Drivers’ Championship leader Jonny Edgar took seventh with the #33 Corvette, and remain the overwhelming favourites to take the class titles with an 18-point advantage over the #92, but will have to wait another three weeks to finish the job.
More to follow…
