Toyota claims manufacturers' title with 1-2 in Barcelona

Text & Images: Rick Kiewiet

Toyota left the inaugural 6 Hours of Barcelona with a one-two finish and the 2026 Hypercar Manufacturers’ World Championship, its eighth title in 14 seasons. The #8 Toyota TR010 Hybrid of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa won by 0.583 seconds from the sister #7 car, in a race that started wet and dried out. In LMGT3, the #92 The Bend Manthey Porsche of Yasser Shahin, Riccardo Pera and Richard Lietz took a dominant win, which keeps the class title fight open until Monza.

Hypercar

Rain at the start caught several drivers out. The #17 Genesis GMR-001 led away from pole with André Lotterer at the wheel, but Daniel Juncadella in the #19 sister car took the lead into Turn 1, getting past both Lotterer and Buemi. Juncadella then ran wide through the Turn 5 gravel and dropped to the back of the Hypercar field, which handed the lead to Buemi. The #8 Toyota held it for most of the race. A five-second penalty for a start procedure infringement was the only blemish on an otherwise clean run.

The second Toyota moved up from ninth on the grid. Nyck de Vries passed Miguel Molina’s #50 Ferrari 499P early in the second hour to make it a one-two, and the two TR010s pulled clear of the field from there. The #8 and #7 crossed the line together, with Buemi celebrating his 100th WEC start. “It shows that by working hard together, we can come back very strongly,” he said. The result means only the two Toyota crews remain in the Drivers’ World Championship fight heading to Monza.

The #50 Ferrari of Molina, Antonio Fuoco and Nicklas Nielsen finished third, 39 seconds behind the winners, after starting eighth. The #38 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R of Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber and Sébastien Bourdais made an offset strategy work to take fourth. Aitken narrowly held off Robert Kubica, Phil Hanson and Yifei Ye in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari, with the second Cadillac, the #12, sixth.

It was another weekend to forget for the title contenders behind Toyota. The #15 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 finished seventh. The #20 car ran as high as second before a penalty for low tyre pressures, and it missed the points for the third race in a row. That ended BMW’s Drivers’ title hopes, and the Manufacturers’ title went to Toyota. Ferrari’s reigning champions in the #51 car were also out of it after a troubled race, including a speed limiter problem, left them 15th. Genesis, so strong on Saturday, finished outside the points with the #19 in 11th and the #17 in 16th.

LMGT3

The #92 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R led from early in the race and won by 4.750 seconds. It was Porsche’s first LMGT3 win since Le Mans last year and the seventh different winner in seven races this season. Antares Au started from pole in the #10 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo and led initially, but he struggled in the wet and slipped back after the first Virtual Safety Car.

The two TF Sport-run Corvettes ran second and third at one stage. The title-leading #33 car lost time in the pits when Ben Keating handed over to Jonny Edgar, and Edgar was then given a 10-second penalty. The #69 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo of Dan Harper moved into second in the fourth hour, but the #10 McLaren of Tom Fleming and Marvin Kirchhoefer was closing on it, despite recovering from a puncture earlier in the race. Kirchhoefer finally passed Harper into Turn 1 with 11 minutes to go to take second. Harper, Anthony McIntosh and Parker Thompson finished third.

The #34 Racing Team Turkey Corvette of Salih Yoluc, Peter Dempsey and Charlie Eastwood was fourth, ahead of the #21 AF Corse Ferrari and the #61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG. The #33 Corvette fell to seventh when Maxime Martin passed it on the final lap. Edgar’s points lead over the #92 crew is now 18, with the #34 Corvette four points further back, so the LMGT3 title will be settled at Monza on 8 November.