WEC Preview: 6 Hours of Barcelona
The World Endurance Championship (WEC) will make it's debut in Spain this weekend at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The penultimate round of the 2026 season features a new venue, after the race in Qatar had to be cancelled due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Championship picture
Hypercar
Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa and Sebastian Buemi sit atop the Hypercar standings after their triumph last time out in Fuji. The No.8 crew have 89 points, sitting 10 ahead of the sister No.7.
Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck De Vries and Mike Conway have struggled since winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans, only scoring once in the three races since. Nonetheless, the four points they got in Japan keeps them in the fight.
The No.20 BMW of Rene Rast, Sheldon van der Linde and Robin Frijns are third on 75 points, ahead of their sister car - the No.15 - who are on 69 points.
The No.8 crew can mathematically clinch the title this weekend, with just 26 points available after this round. To do so they need to outscore the sister car by 16 points, the No.20 by 12 and the No.15 by six points. They can do so by finishing first or second (or third with pole), if their competitors do not score, but they will likely need to win to give themselves the best opportunity possible.
Behind them, the No.51 Ferrari, No.35 Alpine, No.50 Ferrari, No.12 and No.38 Cadillacs, No.35 Alpine and No.007 Aston Martin are all still mathematically in with a chance of winning the title, but will need luck on their side this weekend to have a realistic chance.
In the manufacturers standings, it's no surprise to see Toyota vs BMW once again. The Japanese brand sits on top with 169 points, 23 points ahead of their German competitors. Ferrari sit third on 115 points, slightly further adrift.
Toyota can clinch the teams title this weekend too. With a maximum of 44 points available per 6 hour race weekend, they need to outscore BMW by 21 points, while not being outscored by more than 10 points by Ferrari.
Alpine and Cadillac in fourth and fifth (tied on 96) can both win the title in Monza, but they are the outside shots to do so and will need plenty of luck to close the gap to the top.
LMGT3
The No.33 TF Sport Corvette holds all of the top three spots in the LMGT3 drivers standings. That is because out of all of their drivers, only Jonny Edgar (86 points) has competed in all rounds so far, putting him at the top.
His nearest rivals - that won't be driving the same car as him - are Ian James, Zachaire Robichon and Mattia Drudi in the No.27 The Heart of Racing (THOR) Aston Martin on 64 points. Then comes the No.34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette on 58, the No.91 Manthey Porsche and the No.21 AF Corse Ferrari on 54 points each.
On 51 points is the No.69 WRT BMW, with the No.92 The Bend Manthey Porsche and the No.23 THOR Aston Martin both on 49. The No.32 WRT BMW is on 47 points. All of those cars can mathematically win the title, but Edgar will be looking to eliminate many of those from contention this weekend, and potentially seal the title for himself.
All he needs to do is outscore the No.27 Aston by three points, while not being outscored by any of the other contenders significantly - two points for the No.34 Corvette, six for the No's 91 and 21, nine for the No.69, 11 for the No's 92 and 23 and 13 for the No.32.
Entry list
Alex Lynn will finally make his return to the No.12 Team Jota Cadillac this weekend, after missing the entirety of the season so far recovering from a lingering neck injury. He will join teammates Will Stevens and Norman Nato, the duo are eighth in the standings, with a best result of third in São Paulo.
Lynn made his return to racing last weekend in the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) at the 4 Hours of Portimão. He finished sixth in the No.25 Algarve Pro Racing (APR) LMP2 alongside Jake Hughes and Mathias Kaiser.
The No.93 Peugeot also sees a driver change for the final two rounds. Stoffel Vandoorne departed the team in between rounds, and instead Alex Quinn will race alongside Paul Di Resta and Nick Cassidy. Quinn has also been confirmed as a factory driver for the French marque in 2027.
Schedule
The schedule for this weekend's race has been switched up a small bit to accommodate for drivers who also wish to compete in the GT World Challenge Europe (GTWC EU) Endurance Cup finale at Portimão.
Friday remains unchanged however, with Free Practice 1 (FP1) kicking off at 11:30 local time (10:30 BST). FP2 will get underway later that afternoon at 16:30 local time (15:30 BST). Both sessions run for 90 minutes.
With the GTWC race taking place on Saturday afternoon, Quali day's timetable becomes split between the classes. At 08:50 (7:50 BST) the LMGT3 cars will have a sole hour to finalise their setups before qualifying in FP3.
That's followed an hour later by LMGT3 qualifying and Hyperpole at 11:50 (10:50 BST). The Hypercars then will follow along after, with their FP3 session at 12:40 (11:40 BST). Their qualifying, followed by Hyperpole, will be at 15:40 (14:40 BST).
The split qualifying sessions are routine for the teams and drivers, however they're not usually so far apart. The split FP3's however will provide the teams with more space on the track to do qualifying runs, but may hamper their practice with dealing with traffic during the race.
Weather
Friday looks like a nice, dry day, with a very low chance of rain and a high of 26 degrees Celsius. Saturday morning looks quite similar, however the weather may take a turn in the late afternoon into the evening, with rain expected.
That rain looks like it will continue into race day, which could leave drivers with three dry practice sessions and a fully wet race.
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