Cadillac claimed a dominant victory at the Monza 6 Hours to close out the 2026 World Endurance Championship season, while Toyota drivers Brendon Hartley, Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa secured the Hypercar drivers title despite finishing outside the points.
Hypercar Battle and Chaos
Jack Aitken, Sebastien Bourdais and Earl Bamber controlled the majority of the race in Jota’s #38 Cadillac V-Series R. Aitken moved past both polesitter Miguel Molina in the Ferrari and Genesis driver Daniel Juncadella during the opening hour. Although Bourdais faced pressure from Victor Martins in the #36 Alpine A424 during the second hour, the Cadillac trio remained unchallenged to secure their first win of 2026 by a 5.6-second margin over Martins and Jules Gounon.
Toyota endured its toughest outing of the campaign, with neither TR010 Hybrid car finishing inside the points. However, an 11th-place finish proved sufficient for Hartley, Buemi and Hirakawa to capture their third Hypercar crown as a trio, following previous titles in 2022 and 2023. Their title rivals in the #7 Toyota, Nyck de Vries, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi, needed at least a second-place finish to overcome a 17-point deficit but failed to score.
The chaotic race featured four safety car periods and three full course yellows due to multiple incidents across both classes. Genesis contender Daniel Juncadella initially jumped to the lead at the start after contact with pole-sitter Molina, earning a five-second penalty before his team-mate Paul-Loup Chatin suffered a race-ending technical failure in the third hour. Peugeot achieved its best result of the season with fourth place, though it came after a late collision between Malthe Jakobsen and Alex Lynn’s Jota Cadillac with two minutes remaining.
Ferrari missed out on a podium on home turf after the #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie originally finished third before receiving two post-race penalties totaling 125 seconds for a tyre pressure infringement and exceeding maximum permitted energy. That demoted Tom Gamble and Harry Tincknell to 10th and elevated Antonio Giovinazzi, Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado to fourth in the #51 Ferrari 499P.
LMGT3 Victory and Title Drama
In the LMGT3 category, Richard Lietz, Riccardo Pera and Yasser Shahin secured back-to-back victories in the #92 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3. Lietz successfully held off a late charge from Eduardo Barrichello in the Aston Martin to win by 0.270 seconds in what marked his 100th WEC appearance.
Jonny Edgar clinched the LMGT3 drivers title by finishing third alongside Ben Keating and Nicky Catsburg in the #33 TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3. The result crowned Edgar as the championship’s first solo title-winner since Lietz in 2015, while his co-drivers were ineligible for the standings due to missing earlier rounds.
The decisive strategic moment in LMGT3 occurred during the race’s fourth safety car period, which allowed the leading Porsche and Corvette entries to jump to the front by pitting under caution ahead of rivals who had stopped earlier under green flag conditions.
The championship season concluded with teams and manufacturers turning their focus toward upcoming rule adjustments and future regulatory frameworks for the 2030 WEC Hypercar cycle.
