Skip to main content

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe
Qualifying report

WEC Barcelona: Genesis secures maiden series pole from Toyota

Mathys Jaubert has taken a first-ever WEC pole position for newcomer Genesis for the Barcelona 6 Hours

#17 Genesis GMR-001-Hypercar: Andre Lotterer, Luis Felipe Derani, Mathys Jaubert (France),

World Endurance Championship newcomer Genesis claimed a first pole position at Barcelona with Mathys Jaubert. 

The Frenchman set two laps good enough to take Hypercar pole for Sunday’s Barcelona 6 Hours at the wheel of the #17 Genesis GMR-001 LMDh in the 10-minute Hyperpole session. 

Jaubert posted 1m30.329s on his first push lap and then knocked more than a tenth from that mark to get down to a 1m30.166s. 

That gave him a margin of nearly two tenths over Ryo Hirakawa in the #8 Toyota TR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar. 

The Japanese driver’s 1m30.336s gave him a spot on the front row from the #19 Genesis in which Mathieu Jaminet got down to 1m30.490s.

Alpine took fourth position with a 1m30.732s from Charles Milesi in the #35 A424 LMDh. 

Fifth went to Cadillac courtesy of a 1m30.784s from Will Stevens in the #12 Jota-run Caddy V-Series.R LMDh. 

#83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye, Philip Hanson

#83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye, Philip Hanson

Photo by: FIA WEC / DPPI

Robert Kubica was the highest-place Ferrari driver in the #83 satellite entry run by AF Corse in sixth. 

His 1m30.804s in the #83 Ferrari 499P LMH was bettered by #50 factory entry driven by Antonio Fuoco, whose time was lost to a track limits violation.

Fuoco took eighth with his second push lap, just behind Victor Martins in the #36 Alpine. 

Nyck de Vries in the #7 Toyota and the #38 Cadillac driven by Jack Aitken rounded out the top 10.

Casualties of the first round of qualifying included the two Aston Martin Valkyrie LMHs. 

Alex Riberas and Harry Tinckenll ended up just outside the top 10 positions in 11th and 12th as the last cars within a second of the pace in the opening session. 

BMW, which lies second in the Hypercar manufacturers’ standings, was also unable to make it through into Hyperpole, Sheldon van der Linde and Dries Vanthoor ending up 14th and 16th in the pair of WRT-run BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDhs.

#10 Garage 59 McLaren 720s GT3 EVO: Antares Au, Thomas Fleming, Marvin Kirchhofer

#10 Garage 59 McLaren 720s GT3 EVO: Antares Au, Thomas Fleming, Marvin Kirchhofer

Photo by: FIA WEC / DPPI

In LMGT3, Tom Fleming took pole position for McLaren and the Garage 59 team.

The Briton made it two poles in two attempts aboard the #10 McLaren 720S GT3 EVO, following up on his top spot at Imola in April on the only other occasion that the car has made it through to Hyperpole. 

Fleming posted a 1m40.993s to jump to the top of the timesheets in the 10-minute final qualifying session, before setting a 1m41.012s that also would have been good enough for pole. 

The performance was all the more impressive because Fleming missed the opening two sessions of practice because he is also racing with Garage 59 in the GT World Challenge Europe final at Portimao this weekend. 

The Briton completed only 20 laps at Barcelona, all during the final FP3 session, ahead of qualifying. 

Porsche ended up just over a tenth behind in the LMGT3 classification, Ricardo Pera setting a 1m41.055s #92 Manthy 911 GT3-R to take second.

The Barcelona 6 Hours, the penultimate round of the 2026 WEC, starts at 12:00 local time on Sunday.

Read Also:

WEC Barcelona 6 Hours – Qualifying results

Q4

All Stats
Cla Team # Drivers Car Laps Time Interval km/h
1
Genesis Magma Racing HYPERCAR
17 Germany A. Lotterer Brazil P. Derani
M. Jaubert
Genesis GMR-001 0

1'30.166

185.937
2
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
8 Switzerland S. Buemi New Zealand B. Hartley Japan R. Hirakawa Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 0

+0.170

1'30.336

0.170 185.587
3
Genesis Magma Racing HYPERCAR
19 France M. Jaminet France P. Chatin Spain D. Juncadella Genesis GMR-001 0

+0.324

1'30.490

0.154 185.271
4
Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR
35 France C. Milesi Austria F. Habsburg Alpine A424 0

+0.556

1'30.722

0.232 184.797
5
Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA HYPERCAR
12 United Kingdom W. Stevens France N. Nato United Kingdom A. Lynn Cadillac V-Series.R 0

+0.618

1'30.784

0.062 184.671
6
AF Corse HYPERCAR
83 China Y. Yifei Poland R. Kubica United Kingdom P. Hanson Ferrari 499P 0

+0.638

1'30.804

0.020 184.630
7
Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR
36 France J. Gounon France V. Martins Alpine A424 0

+0.648

1'30.814

0.010 184.610
8
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
50 Italy A. Fuoco Spain M. Molina Denmark N. Nielsen Ferrari 499P 0

+0.670

1'30.836

0.022 184.565
9
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
7 United Kingdom M. Conway Japan K. Kobayashi Netherlands N. de Vries Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 0

+0.787

1'30.953

0.117 184.328
10
Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA HYPERCAR
38 New Zealand E. Bamber France S. Bourdais United Kingdom J. Aitken Cadillac V-Series.R 0

+0.899

1'31.065

0.112 184.101
Previous article What to expect from WEC's Barcelona debut

Top Comments