Toyota celebrates a dominant double victory at its first WEC appearance in Barcelona. Porsche prevails in the LMGT3 class, while changeable conditions and early incidents dominate the six-hour race.
Barcelona (Spain), October 18, 2026. Toyota has concluded the inaugural race of the FIA World Endurance Championship at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with a double victory and secured the manufacturer world title in the Hypercar class ahead of schedule. Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa won the Toyota TR010 Hybrid with the starting number 8 ahead of their team mates Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries. Ferrari completed the podium at the seventh race of the season with the third place of the vehicle with the starting number 50.
The racing weekend from October 16 to 18 marked the first staging of an FIA WEC race on the Spanish Grand Prix circuit. A total of 55,511 spectators watched the event over the three days.
Toyota takes control in difficult conditions
The six-hour competition began on a wet track. Due to the difficult conditions, the field was initially directed onto the track behind the safety car. Even after the race was cleared, the early stages remained eventful.
Genesis Magma Racing secured pole position on Saturday with Mathys Jaubert. However, in the race, team colleague Daniel Juncadella initially took center stage. The Spaniard briefly took the lead, but after a trip into the gravel in Turn Five, he lost several positions. Sébastien Buemi took advantage of this, taking the lead Toyota with starting number 8 to the front.
An incident between the Cadillac driven by Will Stevens and the Alpine driven by Ferdinand Habsburg added to the tension in the field. Toyota did not let this get out of hand. Although the leading car received a five-second penalty for a violation of the start procedure, the team still held its position.
During the second lap of the race, Nyck de Vries passed Ferrari’s Miguel Molina in the sister car. This put both Toyota prototypes in the lead. Subsequently, the two vehicles built up their lead over their rivals. While the track gradually dried out during the remainder of the race and the teams switched to dry tires, Toyota also maintained control over their strategic decisions.
Buemi, Hartley and Hirakawa finally brought the Toyota with number 8 to the finish ahead of the sister car. The distance between the two vehicles was only 0.583 seconds. For Toyota, this meant the first double victory of the season and at the same time the premature decision in the manufacturers' world championship.
With this victory, the Japanese manufacturer secured the title in the manufacturers' standings for the eighth time in the history of the WEC. For Buemi, the success was also a special milestone: The Swiss driver made his 100th appearance in the long-distance world championship in Barcelona.
Ferrari secures third place
Behind the two Toyotas, Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen in the Ferrari 499P with the starting number 50 finished in third place overall. The Spaniard Molina was able to celebrate a podium finish in front of his home crowd.
In fourth place was the Cadillac V-Series.R driven by Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber and Sébastien Bourdais. The crew adopted a different race strategy and defended their position against the Ferrari 499P with the starting number 83 of Robert Kubica, Phil Hanson and Yifei Ye. The second Cadillac car completed the top six places.
Sunday was less successful for BMW. The BMW M Hybrid V8 with the starting number 15 finished seventh. The sister car with the number 20 fell back to second place after an interim improvement to the second position due to a penalty for a violation of the tire pressure requirements and remained without points for the third time in a row.
The race was also disappointing for Genesis. After a strong starting position in the hyperpole, both cars finished outside the points standings. The car with the starting number 19 finished eleventh after the problems in the early stages.
Manthey-Porsche wins the LMGT3 class
In the LMGT3 category, The Bend Manthey secured the first Porsche class victory of the 2026 WEC season. Yasser Shahin, Riccardo Pera and Richard Lietz prevailed over the competition with their Porsche 911 GT3 R with the starting number 92.
The car took the lead in the first race hour and held it for most of the race. In the end, the team was just five seconds ahead of the McLaren of Garage 59 with Antares Au, Tom Fleming and Marvin Kirchhöfer.
Third place went to the BMW M4 GT3 Evo from Team WRT with the starting number 69. This continued the exceptional parity in the LMGT3 class: In the first seven season races, there were seven different winners.
For Porsche, the success was also an important step in the title race. With the victory, the crew of starting number 92 reduced their deficit to championship leader Jonny Edgar in the TF-Sport Corvette to 18 points. The Corvette with starting number 34 also remained within reach of the leading field after finishing fourth. The decision on the championship title was thus postponed to the final season race.
Final season in Monza
After the penultimate race of the year, the long-distance World Championship now turns its attention to Italy. The season finale will take place at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza from November 6 to 8, 2026.
While Toyota already secured the manufacturers' title in Barcelona, the battle for the drivers' championship in the hypercar class remains open. After BMW's difficult weekend, only the two Toyota crews remain in a position to win the drivers' title.
No final decision has yet been made in the LMGT3 category either. The tight margins promise an exciting finale in Monza.