BMW still had a chance at the FIA WEC Hypercar championship in the penultimate round of the season at Barcelona this past weekend, but a one-two finish by Toyota clinched the manufacturers championship for them and assures that a pair of Toyota drivers will also win the drivers’ championship. BMW M Team WRT is now left fighting for third and fourth positions in the drivers’ championship and second in the manufacturers running with one race left.
It’s no mean feat to be in the top three in the FIA WEC Hypercar championship, but BMW was leading the points earlier this year. A poor showing in the US at the Circuit of the Americas in early September for both cars, a 13th place in Japan for the #20 car and disappointing results in Barcelona put the championship out of reach. The results over the last few races also flipped the standings for the BMW drivers, as Jan Magnussen and Raffaele Marciello (in the #15 car) are now in second place in the standings ahead of Robin Frijns and René Rast (in the #20 car). Up until now, Frijns and Rast had been the top-placed BMW drivers.
Robin Frijns, Rene Rast and Sheldon van der Linde finished 14th.
Both BMW M Hybrid V8 entries were off the pace in Barcelona all through practice and qualifying. The fastest that either car was in the three practice sessions was ninth, and they qualified in 14th (#20) and 16th (#15), with neither car making it into the Hyperpole session for the top ten cars. “Qualifying has never been our strength this year,” said Sheldon van der Linde, who shared the #15 car with Rast and Frijns. “We didn’t expect to be this slow today to be honest. I knew Hyperpole would be very difficult to make following our qualifying sims in FP2 and FP3 (free practice two and three), but yeah, to be a second off pole, I did not expect, to be honest.”
Van der Linde was hoping that the mixed conditions expected on race day would help to even things out and give them more of a chance, but it didn’t turn out that way. There were mixed conditions, but the weather didn’t help out the BMW entries. The WRT team tried to use strategy to move the #20 car of van der Linde, Frijns and Rast up through the field and it seemed to be working at first, but a forced pit stop due to lower than allowed tire pressures and a subsequent penalty for the illegal tire pressure took them out of the six-hour race, and they ultimately finished down two laps in 14th.
The #69 M4 GT3 EVO finished third in cool throwback livery that was homage to the BASF-sponsored M1 Procar.
The #15 car of Magnussen, Marciello and Dries Vanthoor fared a bit better, despite also dropping back with a ten-second penalty for contact early in the race. The #15 ran as high as fifth at one point, but dropped back to seventh by the finish, with Toyota finishing one-two and Ferrari in third. “We’ve been struggling throughout the week, with yesterday’s qualifying session being the low point in terms of pace,” said Vanthoor. “During the race, we had some good stints as we tried to make our way back through the field, and we managed to get back up to P5. However, we lost pace again towards the end of the race and couldn’t fight with the others, eventually dropping back to P7. Congratulations to Toyota! We had a good battle with them fighting for the manufacturers’ world championship. Looking back at last season, we’ve also made a big step forward, so we have to take some positives away from this, even though we’re disappointed today.”
Dan Harper (left), Parker Thompson (middle) and Anthony McIntosh celebrate third place.
The WRT team had a much better result in the LMGT3 class, with the #69 M4 GT3 EVO of Anthony McIntosh, Parker Thompson and Dan Harper finishing on the podium in third after starting from 15th. Harper had a late race battle for second with the #59 McLaren and lost out but held on for third. “We had low expectations but, of course, high hopes, and to be honest, we’ve done the perfect job,” said Harper. “Qualifying was difficult, of course. Things just didn’t quite fall into place, so we started further back than we should have. Tony did a mega job in the first two stints under tricky conditions and got us back up to the front. Then Parker and a good strategy brought us right into the fight for the top five. I then jumped in and tried to hold on with everything I had. It was very close and very tricky, especially when it came to managing tire pressures and energy towards the end, but I’m absolutely delighted to have secured a podium!”
The #32 M4 GT3 EVO of Augusto Farfus, Darren Leung and Sean Gelael had a solid qualifying run to start sixth in the race but had some penalties that dropped them out of contention, finishing tenth. The LMGT3 win went to the #92 Porsche.
Augusto Farfus, Darren Leung and Sean Gelael qualified sixth but finished tenth after penalties.
The final round of the 2026 FIA WEC season is at the Monza circuit in Italy on November 6th-8th. BMW drivers Kevin Magnussen and Raffaele Marciello are third in Hypercar driver points with Robin Frijns and René Rast in fourth. BMW is second in the Hypercar manufacturers championship behind Toyota, and just 24 points ahead of Ferrari. In LMGT3, Anthony McIntosh, Parker Thompson and Dan Harper are sixth in the driver points and fourth in team points.
—David Haueter
[Photos courtesy BMW/Drew Gibson]
