WEC Monza: #8 Toyota seals drivers’ title as Cadillac wins chaotic finale

Cadillac signed off the 2026 World Endurance Championship with a dominant victory in the Monza 6 Hours, while Toyota trio Brendon Hartley, Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa sealed the drivers’ title despite finishing outside the points.

Jack Aitken, Sebastien Bourdais and Earl Bamber led the majority of the race in Jota’s #38 Cadillac V-Series R, after Aitken cleared both polesitter Ferrari’s Miguel Molina and Genesis driver Daniel Juncadella in the opening hour.

While Bourdais briefly came under serious pressure from the #36 Alpine A424 of Victor Martins in the second hour, the Cadillac trio largely remained unchallenged in Hypercar to score a first win of 2026.

Toyota, which had wrapped up the manufacturers title with victory in Barcelona last month, endured its toughest race of the season, with neither TR010 Hybrid finishing inside the points.

But an 11th place was still enough for Hartley, Buemi and Hirakawa to win their third Hypercar title as a trio following their successes in 2022 and ‘23.

The two Toyota crews were the only drivers in contention for the title heading into the Monza finale, having won four of the first seven rounds between them.

But the #7 Toyota trio Nyck de Vries, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi needed to finish at least second to have any hope of overcoming a 17-point deficit and adding a Hypercar title to a Le Mans 24 Hours win in June.

With both cars from the Japanese manufacturer failing to score, the Hypercar title automatically went to Hartley, Buemi and Hirakawa in the #8 Toyota.

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TR010: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa

Photo by: JEP

Hypercar

At the start of the race, Daniel Juncadella banged wheels with the pole-sitting #50 Ferrari of Miguel Molina, with the Genesis driver running off the track at the first chicane and rejoining in the lead.

The move was immediately placed under investigation, just as Aitken passed Molina with a clean move into the second chicane to put himself directly behind the #19 Genesis.

While Juncadella seemed almost certain to receive a penalty, Aitken wasted no time behind the Spaniard, sending his Cadillac up the inside at Parabolica to hit the front.

As expected, Juncadella was handed a five-second penalty for not respecting the race director’s instructions for Turns 1-2, but an early Virtual Safety Car - deployed for an incident in LMGT3 - allowed him to serve the penalty while keeping second position intact.

The #19 Genesis continued to run in second until the beginning of the third hour, when Juncadella’s team-mate Paul-Loup Chatin suddenly stopped on track with a technical issue, robbing the Korean manufacturer of a potential podium finish and bringing out another safety car.

With the lead Genesis out, the #36 Alpine A424 emerged as Cadillac’s closest challenger after Jules Gounon jumped from fifth to third under the first safety car.

Gounon’s team-mate Victor Martins gave Bourdais a tough fight for the lead, with the pair even making contact at the first chicane.

But Bourdais managed to hold off Martins until the end of the stint, with the latter falling into the clutches of the #20 BMW M Hybrid of Sheldon van der Linde.

#38 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota Cadillac V-Series.R: Earl Bamber, Sebastien Bourdais, Jack Aitken

Photo by: Paul Foster

Van der Linde jumped Martins in the following a safety car restart, but the latter retook the position when the race was placed under caution for a fourth time.

Meanwhile, the #38 Cadillac continued to circulate at the front, with Bamber carrying on the good work of his team-mates Aitken and Bourdais.

Bamber eventually took the chequered flag by 5.6s to score Cadillac’s first Hypercar victory since Sao Paolo 2025, ensuring its factory partner Jota maintained its streak of scoring one overall or class win since joining the championship in 2016.

Gounon and Martins bid farewell to the Alpine A424 with a fine second place, making it three podiums for the Signatech-run squad in the last four rounds.

The #20 BMW remained within striking distance of the #36 Alpine until the penultimate hour, when electrical issues sent Robin Frijns tumbling down the order.

The biggest beneficiary was the #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie of Tom Gamble and Harry Tincknell after the later charged from eighth in the final hour to snatch the final spot on the podium from the #51 Ferrari 499P of Antonio Giovinazzi. 

But shortly after the chequered flag was waved, the Aston was handed a 20-second penalty for a tyre pressure infringement, elevating Giovinazzi, Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado to the final spot on the podium.

Giovinazzi, Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado eventually had to settle for fourth place, as Ferrari missed out a podium on home turf.

The #51 entry was the only Ferrari to enjoy a clean race, with both the #50 and the #83 499P shown black-and-orange flags in the first hour for breaching the tyre pressure requirement. After making unscheduled stops to replace the tyre and serving 20s penalties the next time they pitted for the same infringement, both cars dropped well outside the top 10. 

#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen

Photo by: Jakob Ebrey

This allowed Molina, Antonio Fuoco and Nicklas Nielsen to carve their back up to the points in seventh place, while Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson recovered to eighth in AF Corse’s satellite entry despite having to make an additional pitstop due to a loosely-fitted wheel.

Behind the #51 Ferrari, Peugeot secured its best finish of the season in fifth, albeit in controversial circumstances.

Driving the #94 9X8 he shares with Loic Duval and Theo Pourchaire, Malthe Jakobsen was involved in an accident with the #12 Jota Cadillac of Alex Lynn in the final two minutes, with Lynn ending up in the barrier after they made contact.

Cadillac’s exit promoted the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello and Kevin Magnussen to sixth ahead of the remaining two Ferraris.

The top 10 was completed by the hobbled #20 BMW crewed by van der Linde, Frijns and Rene Rast, and the #93 Peugeot of Alex Quinn, Nick Cassidy and Paul di Resta.

Toyota lacked the pace to fight for points, with late-race incidents for the two cars with the #17 Genesis further thwarted their efforts to finish inside the top 10.

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TR010: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck De Vries

Photo by: Jakob Ebrey

The race featured no fewer than four safety car periods and three full course yellows amid a multiple of incidents in both classes.

The first caution was deployed in the opening hour for the #58 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 of Antares Au, who got stranded in the gravel while trying to avoid an incident between the #79 Iron Lynx Mercedes AMG GT3 of Johannes Zelger and the #23 Heart of Racing 

The safety car appeared for a second time shortly afterwards when the other McLaren of Alexander West crashed into the #32 WRT BMW M4 GT3 of Darren Leung.

The aforementioned technical issues for the #19 Genesis led to the race being neutralised for the third time, while Milesi’s crash at Ascari prompted the final safety car appearance.

Porsche scores LMGT3 win, Corvette driver Edgar takes title

Richard Lietz, Riccardo Pera and Yasser Shahin made it back-to-back LMGT3 wins in the #92 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3, while Jonny Edgar clinched the title with a third-place finish aboard the #33 TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.

The fight for LMGT3 victory was essentially decided by the fourth-hour safety car, with the #92 Porsche and the #33 Corvette jumping to the front by pitting under caution. 

#92 The Bend Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R: Yasser Shahin, Riccardo Pera, Richard Lietz

Photo by: JEP

The #88 Proton Ford Mustang LMGT3 and the #23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 that were duelling for the victory in the fourth hour dropped to third and fourth having pitted under green conditions just before the final SC.

The Ford later picked up several penalties for unrelated incidents, but the Aston remained in the fight, with Eduardo Barrichello mounting a late attack for victory in the Aston he shared with Newell and Jonny Adam.

But Lietz, taking part in his 100th WEC race, managed to fend off Barrichello and take the chequered flag with a narrow margin of 0.270s.

The #33 Corvette ran as low as 10th in the early stages, but Edgar, Ben Keating and Nicky Catsburg capitalised on the final safety car to grab third position.

The result was enough for Edgar to be crowned the WEC’s first solo champion since Lietz in 2015, with Keating and Catsburg ineligible for the title having missed races earlier in the season.

Fourth place in the race went to Dan Harper, Anthony McIntosh and Parker Thompson in the sole-surviving BMW M4 GT3, while ASP’s pole-sitting #78 Lexus RC F GT3 of Esteban Masson, Hadrien David and Tom van Rompuy eventually finished fifth after picking up two drive-through penalties in the opening half of the race. ASP’s second entry was eliminated from second place when Clemens Schmid was told to stop on track due to a technical issue.

WEC Monza 6 Hours 

Results to follow