BMW M Team WRT pulled off a fuel strategy masterclass in the penultimate hour to claim its maiden World Endurance Championship victory at the crash-filled 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
The No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Rene Rast, Sheldon van der Linde and Robin Frijns opted to make a shorter first pit stop that turned modest P11 qualifying position into a dominant one-two finish, ending BMW’s 27-year drought at the pinnacle of endurance racing since their last triumph at the 1999 Le Mans 24 Hours.
The sister No. 15 BMW of Kevin Magnussen, Dries Vanthoor and Raffaele Marciello came home 1.969 seconds adrift in second, ultimately propelling the Belgian squad to the top of both the Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ standings.
Pole position had gone to the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 driven by Mikkel Jensen, Loïc Duval and Theo Pourchaire, however, the start saw the No. 12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA piloted by Will Stevens, Norman Nato and Louis Deletraz surge into an early lead.
As the opening laps unfolded under dry but cooling conditions, the Hypercar pack compressed rapidly, with Stevens eking out a slim margin over the pursuing Peugeot and the No. 8 Toyota TR010 Hybrid driven by Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa.
Meanwhile, Magnussen at the wheel of the No. 15 BMW for the initial stint, methodically climbed up from 10th to latch onto the top five.
The first signs of the race’s chaotic nature emerged around the 20-minute mark when contact in the LMGT3 class triggered a Virtual Safety Car, bunching the field and allowing strategic minds in the pits to ponder early stops.
BMW M Team WRT seized this opportunity to run an audacious short-fuel gambit on the No. 20, which catapulted Rast into the race lead upon the restart.
Rast used the clean air to extend his advantage to over fifty seconds by mid-race as rival No. 12 Cadillac V-Series.R scrambled to react.
Full 2026 WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps Race Results
Meanwhile, Antonio Felix da Costa put the No. 35 Alpine A424 into third after a faster pit stop in the third hour as the No. 8 Toyota struggled to keep up. However, a series of safety cars in the last two hours bunched the field onto a similar strategy.
The first late VSC came at the start of the fifth hour after the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 of Malthe Jakobsen hit the spinning No. 79 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Matteo Cressoni at Les Combe, effectively forcing the entire field to pit.
The No. 20 BMW BMW M Hybrid V8 remained firmly in the lead but Frijins’ advantage was wiped to 2 seconds ahead of the No. 8 Toyota and the No. 35 Alpine.
The second caution came during the final hour after Augusto Farfus in the No. 32 BMW M4 GT3 EVO lost control and slammed the No. 51 Ferrari 499P of Alessandro Pier Guidi at La Source.
The final caution was triggered after Alex Riberas struck the barriers on the Kemmel Straight at the wheel of the No. 009 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Valkyrie when trying to pass the No. 35 Alpine A424 of Antonio Felix da Costa.
The No. 8 Toyota made a critical strategy error by opting to pit as the virtual safety car was called, effectively vaulting Kevin Magnussen’s No. 15 BMW up to second behind Robin Frijins with just 24 minutes left on the clock.
Frijins ultimately cruised to deliver BMW M Team WRT’s first WEC Hypercar win, while Magnussen fended off a late attack from the No. 50 Ferrari of Miguel Molina to complete a remarkable BMW 1-2.
Tom Gamble and Harry Tincknell steered the No. 007 Aston Martin Valkyrie to an impressive fourth-place finish, after overpowering the No. 7 Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi just moments before race end.
