Toyota has secured the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship Manufacturers’ title following a dominant performance at the 6 Hours of Barcelona.
The Japanese manufacturer completed a convincing one-two finish in the penultimate round of the season, demonstrating its superiority in both wet and dry conditions.
Victory went to the No. 8 Toyota TR010 Hybrid driven by Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa, who crossed the finish line just 0.583 seconds ahead of the sister No. 7 car shared by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries.
The No. 50 Ferrari 499P of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen completed the podium, finishing approximately 39 seconds behind the winners.
The result secured Toyota’s eighth Manufacturers’ World Championship title in the WEC, underlining the Japanese manufacturer’s continued success in endurance racing.
Dramatic Start as Genesis Fails to Capitalise on Qualifying Pace
The race began on a wet track, creating challenging conditions for the Hypercar field.
Genesis, which had impressed in qualifying by securing pole position with the No. 17 car and third place with the No. 19, saw its hopes of a strong result quickly fade.
Daniel Juncadella made an excellent start in the No. 19 Genesis, taking the lead at the opening corner ahead of Buemi’s Toyota and André Lotterer’s sister Genesis.
However, the Spaniard ran off the circuit at Turn 5 just moments later, dropping to the back of the field.
Buemi inherited the lead, while Lotterer gradually lost ground as the race progressed.
Several neutralisations interrupted the opening hour, but Toyota remained firmly in contention. Meanwhile, Nyck de Vries produced an impressive recovery in the No. 7 car, climbing from ninth on the grid to second position.
Toyota Takes Control as the Track Dries
As conditions improved, teams began switching from wet-weather tyres to slicks.
The No. 8 Toyota was forced to serve a five-second penalty for a starting procedure infringement, temporarily handing the lead to its sister car.
Brendon Hartley responded by closing the gap to Mike Conway before overtaking him to restore the No. 8 Toyota to first position.
From that point onwards, the two Japanese Hypercars established a pace their rivals could not match, building an advantage of approximately 30 seconds over the No. 50 Ferrari.
Although the gap between the leading Toyotas narrowed during the closing stages, Buemi, Hartley and Hirakawa held on to secure victory by less than six tenths of a second.
Ferrari Secures Podium as Cadillac Finishes Fourth
Behind the Toyota one-two, Ferrari claimed an important third-place finish with its No. 50 499P.
Fuoco, Molina and Nielsen delivered a consistent performance, remaining among the leading contenders throughout the race.
The Italian manufacturer secured the final podium position after the No. 36 Alpine, which had briefly moved into third through an alternative strategy, lost ground in the closing stages.
Fourth place went to the No. 38 Cadillac V-Series.R entered by Hertz Team JOTA, ahead of the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari shared by Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson.
The second Cadillac, No. 12, finished sixth, followed by the No. 15 BMW.
Alpine’s No. 36 car eventually crossed the line in eighth after requiring a tyre change during the final ten minutes.
It was a more difficult race for the No. 51 factory Ferrari of Antonio Giovinazzi, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi, which struggled with its race pace and encountered a pit-lane speed limiter issue