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
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
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
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.
WEC Barcelona 6 Hours – Qualifying results
Q4
| Cla | Team | # | Drivers | Car | Laps | Time | Interval | km/h | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Genesis Magma Racing
HYPERCAR
|
17 |
M. Jaubert
|
Genesis GMR-001 | 0 |
1'30.166 |
185.937 | ||||
| 2 |
Toyota Racing
HYPERCAR
|
8 |
|
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | 0 |
+0.170 1'30.336 |
0.170 | 185.587 | |||
| 3 |
Genesis Magma Racing
HYPERCAR
|
19 |
|
Genesis GMR-001 | 0 |
+0.324 1'30.490 |
0.154 | 185.271 | |||
| 4 |
Alpine Endurance Team
HYPERCAR
|
35 |
|
Alpine A424 | 0 |
+0.556 1'30.722 |
0.232 | 184.797 | |||
| 5 |
Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA
HYPERCAR
|
12 |
|
Cadillac V-Series.R | 0 |
+0.618 1'30.784 |
0.062 | 184.671 | |||
| 6 |
AF Corse
HYPERCAR
|
83 |
|
Ferrari 499P | 0 |
+0.638 1'30.804 |
0.020 | 184.630 | |||
| 7 |
Alpine Endurance Team
HYPERCAR
|
36 |
|
Alpine A424 | 0 |
+0.648 1'30.814 |
0.010 | 184.610 | |||
| 8 |
FERRARI AF CORSE
HYPERCAR
|
50 |
|
Ferrari 499P | 0 |
+0.670 1'30.836 |
0.022 | 184.565 | |||
| 9 |
Toyota Racing
HYPERCAR
|
7 |
|
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | 0 |
+0.787 1'30.953 |
0.117 | 184.328 | |||
| 10 |
Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA
HYPERCAR
|
38 |
|
Cadillac V-Series.R | 0 |
+0.899 1'31.065 |
0.112 | 184.101 | |||
| View full results | |||||||||||
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