No.8 Toyota leads home dominant 1-2 in WEC 6 Hours of Barcelona race to clinch the manufacturers title
Toyota Racing are World Endurance Championship (WEC) kings again. The No.8 TR010 Hybrid led home a comfortable 1-2 to secure the team's eighth manufacturers crown, also winning on Sebastien Buemi's 100th race, with the No.50 Ferrari rounding out the podium.
In LMGT3 it was an impressive win for the No.92 The Bend Manthey Porsche, the season's seventh different winner.
As it happened
While the rain had subsided by the time the race was to get underway, the track had not dried out. It was wet weather tyres all around on the grid, in both classes.
Those conditions proved very tricky, with drivers struggling to get temperature into their tyres. Race control decided to add an extra formation lap, meaning the clock would start counting but the race would not go green.
The next time around it did go green, and it was a good start of Daniel Juncadella in third place in the No.19 Genesis, who got past the No.8 Toyota of Sebastian Buemi, and then down the inside of his teammate Andre Lotterer in the No.17 Genesis.
Juncadella didn't stay there for long though, losing the car at turn 5 and taking a trip into the gravel and dropping to the back of the pack.
Behind the front three, the No.35 Alpine of Ferdinand Habsburg was tagged by Will Stevens in the No.12 Cadillac, spinning him around and dropping him behind all of the LMGT3s. Stevens was given a 10 second time penalty for incident responsibility.
In LMGT3, the No.88 Ford Mustang of Steffano Gattuso was tagged by Martin Berry in the No.61 Mercedes at turn 1, causing a chain reaction of cars avoiding each other, which ended with the No.78 Lexus of Hadrien David being spun into the gravel. Berry was given a 10 second penalty for the incident.
David dropped to the back alongside Thomas Flohr in the No.54 Ferrari, which spun on the extra formation lap, but got going under his own steam.
With all of the action, race control called the races first Virtual Safety Car (VSC), and subsequently full Safety Car (SC).
Once we got back to green, Buemi led the field away, with Antares Au in the No.10 McLaren leading LMGT3. Yasser Shahin quickly got past him though in the No.92 Porsche, taking the lead.
Buemi's lead would be interrupted however, he was given a five second time penalty for infringing the start procedure on lap 1 of the race. He wasn't able to serve the penalty during his next stop, as it was under a VSC.
The races' second VSC was for the No.007 Aston Martin of Harry Tincknell, who lost it under braking at turn 5, skipping over the gravel and sliding into the wall. He got going again after some assistance, but he was off the lead lap.
When we went green, the rain's intensity had increased, and there was a constant intermediate level of rain keeping the drivers on wet tyres.
Buemi led away from home hero Miguel Molina in the No.50 Ferrari and his teammate Nyck De Vries in the No.7. The former Formula One racer found his way past the Spaniard though, making it a Toyota 1-2.
During the VSC, all of the field came in for pit service, except the No.20 BMW of Rene Rast. He had a tyre pressure issue though, putting an end to their strategy gamble before it really got going. They had to pit out of sequence to change the tyres, and were also given a 20 second penalty for the pressure infringement.
With just over four hours and 45 minutes remaining, some debris - which appeared to be some sort of advertising - made it's way onto the main straight. Drivers were spreading across the track trying to avoid it, so race control called a brief Full Course Yellow (FCY) to collect it.
Once we went to green again, it was clear that the two Toyotas were the cars to beat today. The duo opened up a gap of 25 seconds to the pack behind.
De Vries caught up to Buemi in front, but before he had a chance to overtake, it was time for pit stops. All of the drivers decided it was dry enough to get rid of the wet tyres, and opted for slicks. Some choose four softs, while others experimented with a mixture of soft and medium tyres.
The No.8 re-emerged in second place after their penalty in the hands of Brendan Hartley. But by pitting a lap earlier than the sister car, he had more tyre temperature than Mike Conway, gliding by at the final corner and back into the lead.
Even though they were off the wet tyres, the two leaders were still the quickest cars on track, with Hartley pulling out a gap to his teammate, and a gap of 20 seconds to Nicklas Nielsen in the No.50 Ferrari behind.
The battle for fourth was very hot as we approached half distance, with the No.12 Cadillac, No.83 Ferrari, No.35 Alpine, No.009 Aston Martin and No.15 BMW all involved in multiple mini battle packs.
Just before the halfway mark, the field made another round of pit stops, with the Toyotas re-emerging back in front. Hartley stayed aboard the leading car, while Kamui Kobayashi took over the No.7, which led the No.50 and No.83 Ferraris.
As we crossed into the second half of the race, the picture up front remained the same, with the No.8 Toyota leading the sister No.7, with both way ahead of any challengers, as the No.50 Ferrari in third, was 36 seconds behind the leader and 24 behind the No.8
In LMGT3 it was another comfortable lead, as the No.92 Porsche of Richard Lietz was 16 seconds out front, ahead of the No.34 Corvette, with the No.69 BMW a long way behind as well.
The latter however did not have it easy, as it was engaged in a three-way battle for third, with the No.77 Ford of Sebastian Priaulx and the No.10 McLaren of Tom Fleming, which was recovering after a puncture earlier on.
After around 30 minutes, the latter managed to get past the Ford and into fourth. This, along with the battle for fifth in Hypercar between the No.36 Alpine and the No.15 BMW were the main focal points of what was a relatively uneventful part of the race.
That changed with two hours and 25 minutes to go, as three cars had almost simultaneous offs at turn seven, with first Zacharie Robichon's No.27 Aston Martin being beached in the gravel trap and then the No.61 Mercedes of Maxime Martin and the No.93 Peugeot of Nick Cassidy also went off, but managed to keep going.
The most likely cause was the Aston Martin clipping the wet kerb which brought water onto the track. This brought out a VSC and along with it a pit stop galore, as virtually everyone took advantage, in order to get a freebie.
The long VSC then of course turned to a Safety Car. This meant Toyota's Hypercar and Manthey Porsche's LMGT3 leads, which in both cases was enormous, had evaporated.
A short while later, while still under VSC conditions, the No.007 Aston Martin of Harry Tincknell, came to a halt right after pitting with a mechanical issue, just beyond the track's limits at turn seven.
It was subsequently towed to a safe place, as the pass around began, with racing resuming three minutes before the two-hour mark.
It again was the No.8 out front, leading the No.7 sister car, with Ryo Hirakawa and Kamui Kobayashi behind their wheels. Third was Antonio Fuoco's No.50 Ferrari, with Robert Kubica's No.83 Ferrari and the No.15 BMW of Dries Vanthoor completing the top five.
In LMGT3 Lietz retained the lead in his No.92 Porsche, ahead of Daniel Harper's No.69 BMW and Marvin Kirchofer's No.10 McLaren, with Charlie Eastwood's No.34 Corvette and Lin Hodenius' No.79 Mercedes rounding out that top five.
LMGT3 provided us with the next flashpoint of the race, as Ben Tuck in the No.77 Ford went wide at turn seven, rejoining the racing line and having a huge hit with the No.23 Aston Martin of Jonny Adam, with both drivers though able to continue on.
Most of the action from hour five, was from the GT3s, with a massive battle for fifth going on for a decent amount of time.
On the Hypercar front, nothing of significance happened for quite a while, aside from Dries Vanthoor and Earl Bamber battling for fifth, in the No.15 BMW and No.38 Cadillac respectively.
Things did not change even after the final pit stop cycle, with Alex Quinn getting his WEC debut with Peugeot's No.93 car, ahead of him getting a full-time drive for 2027.
A short FCY with 23 minutes to go for debris at turn nine did not change anything in the running order and after six hours, Ryo Hirakawa crossed the line in the No.8 Toyota to win for the third time this year, with Nyck de Vries following suit in the No.7 to secure both a 1-2 finish and the manufacturers championship for Toyota Racing.
Rounding out the top five in Hypercar, was the No.38 Cadillac of Jack Aitken and the No.83 Ferrari of Robert Kubica.
In LMGT3 it was the No.92 Porsche that dominated the affair, with Riccardo Pera finishing more than ten seconds ahead of Marvin Kirchofer's No.10 McLaren, that grabbed second place with ten minutes to go, from Dan Harper's No.69 BMW, who finished third.
Following up were the No.34 Corvette of Charlie Eastwood and the No.21 Ferrari of Simon Mann, with the sixth place finish for the No.33 Corvette and the No.92 Porsche's win, meaning that, like the Hypercar drivers title, the LMGT3 one will be decided once and for all in Monza.
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