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Photo: Fabrizio Boldoni/DPPI Toyota Racing’s drivers have paid tribute to the job done by the Japanese brand to revive its fortunes in the FIA World Endurance Championship this year after wrapping up the manufacturers’ title with a race to spare with a commanding 1-2 in Barcelona. The No. 8 crew of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa led home a formation finish for the two TR010 Hybrids ahead of the sister No. 7 machine of Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck de Vries and Mike Conway in a race dominated by the team. With nearest championship rival BMW suffering a race to forget, it was enough to put the manufacturers’ prize out of reach with only next month’s Monza season finale with a race to spare, while also guaranteeing one of the Toyota crews will win the drivers’ title. Toyota’s strong form in 2026 with its upgraded car, which was won four races from seven, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, comes as a marked contrast from a challenging 2025...

Photo: JEP/SRO SRO Motorsports Group’s GT World YouTube channel reached new heights this weekend, with a record 9.7 million views from Saturday evening’s GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup season finale at Portimao, which featured Max Verstappen’s series debut. It was coupled with a recorded on-site attendance of 28,000 for SRO’s final major European event of the season. Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed claimed the final overall victory of the season with its crew of Maxi Goetz, Ralf Aron and Fabian Schiller, while Porsche filled the second and third steps of the podium thanks to Lionspeed GP and Boutsen VDS, respectively. There were also class wins for Selected Car Racing (Ferrari), Team WRT (BMW), and 2 Seas Motorsport (Mercedes-AMG). The concluding hour of the race was particularly action-packed, and no one delivered more overtakes than Verstappen. The four-time Formula 1 world champion demonstrated his natural talent that has made one of ...

Photo: Charly Lopez/DPPI Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa dominated the 6 Hours of Barcelona as Toyota secured the FIA World Endurance Championship manufacturers’ title in style with a 1-2. The Japanese manufacturer was rapid in both wet and dry conditions in Spain and a victory never really looked in doubt from the first hour as the No. 8 Toyota TR010 Hybrid that started on the front row ultimately took the checkered flag 0.583 seconds clear of the sister car of Nyck de Vries, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi as they closed up for a photo finish. The 1-2 ensured that neither BMW nor Ferrari can now overhaul Toyota in the manufacturers’ race — an eighth such title for the marque — while it will be an intra-team battle for the drivers’ honors as well with the No. 8 crew enjoying a 17-point advantage as no other pairing can usurp them. Toyota stamped its authority on the race from the very first lap, which proved disastrous for Genesis Magma Racing a...

Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI ***Mathys Jaubert became the youngest-ever outright polesitter in the FIA World Endurance Championship on Saturday at Barcelona. At 21 years, 7 months and 15 days, surpassing the previous record set by Malthe Jakobsen earlier this year at Spa. ***However, the youngest class polesitter remains Thomas Laurent, who was just 19 years, 3 months and 11 days old when he scored LMP2 pole for the 2017 Nürburgring round alongside Oliver Jarvis, with two-driver averages determining grid positions. ***Shortly after scoring its first pole, Genesis Magma Racing announced that Daniel Juncadella has been officially retained for the 2027 season, with the news coming in a Genesis Motor Europe event held in downtown Barcelona on Saturday evening. ***Juncadella commented: “I’m already massively motivated for next season. My first season in Hypercar has been a valuable experience. As a rookie, even at 35, there were still a lot of things to learn, but I feel like I have got...

Source: Sports Car 365

Photo: Andrea Lorenzina/DPPI Mathys Jaubert says it “means a lot” to score the first pole position for Genesis Magma Racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship, as the Korean marque celebrated getting both of its cars in the top three for Sunday’s 6 Hours of Barcelona. The 21-year-old edged out the championship-leading Toyota of Ryo Hirakawa by 0.170 seconds at the wheel of the No. 17 GMR-001 that he shares with Andre Lotterer and Pipo Derani to deliver pole in only the seventh attempt for 2026 newcomer Genesis. Mathieu Jaminet completed a strong effort for the brand with a time good enough for third on the grid aboard the sister No. 19 car. While stressing that the team must remain focused on trying to maximize its chances of a first victory on Sunday in what is expected to be at least partially a wet race, Jaubert said he was “humbled” to be the driver to achieve the landmark pole. “The team did a good job analyzing everything from free pr...

Photo: SRO/JEP Garage 59 boss Andrew Kirkaldy feared that his squad would have to hire a jet on its own to take its drivers between Barcelona and Portimao for the FIA World Endurance Championship and GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS clash as the number of racers doing both continually reduced. Despite 18 GTWC Europe regulars also competing in the WEC, only four have ended up tackling both championships this weekend and two of those are Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo racers Tom Fleming and Benji Goethe. Paradine Competition BMW M4 GT3 EVO driver Darren Leung and Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo pilot Mattia Drudi are the other two, with everyone making the trip backwards and forwards between the venues hiring a jet together to reduce costs. “It is helpful,” Kirkaldy told Sportscar365 of those affected combining forces. “It’s interesting because it started off there’s 18 drivers, now it’s 15, now it’s ten, now it’s six — and it was like, wait a m...