WEC 2026 result after Round 2: 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps

Toyota Racing continued this year’s FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) campaign by challenging hard for a podium in the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps but returning with a double points finish. What happened in this dramatic second race of the season? Read on for our WEC 2026 review of round two.

WEC 2026: 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps

Three short weeks ago, Toyota Racing and the new TR010 Hybrid enjoyed a winning debut in Italy and took the early lead in the WEC. The team planned to take that momentum into this second round in Belgium, the Spa-Francorchamps circuit being a fan favourite and one of Toyota Racing’s two home tracks. As such, a large contingent of employees from the team’s operational base in nearby Cologne, Germany, as well as colleagues from Toyota’s European HQ in Brussels, were there to lend their support.

Toyota has previously enjoyed good success here in Belgium. In the team’s 13 races at Spa it has achieved four pole positions, eight wins and a total of 14 podiums. But there is always more to Spa than its 4.34-mile route through the Ardennes forest. The circuit’s high-speed corners and long flat-out straight require a vehicle set-up similar to that applied for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This event therefore marks the final competitive opportunity to optimise team operations and prepare the TR010 Hybrids prior to that most important event in the WEC calendar.

Free practice

Race week began with pit stop practice, scrutineering checks and a track walk. Back in the garage, the team’s mechanics assembled and fine-tuned the two TR010 Hybrids, while the engineers and drivers planned their set-ups and strategies for the track action to come.

Temperatures for the first 90-minute practice session were much cooler than at Imola, which required a different vehicle set-up for the conditions and demands of Spa. The circuit requires high speeds through the first and third sectors, balanced against greater aerodynamic and mechanical grip across the second sector. Second practice saw the focus switch to analysing the soft and medium compound tyres, answering questions regarding tyre warm-up, performance, and consistency.

Qualifying

Qualifying took place following the third and final practice session – the final opportunity for the engineers and drivers to optimise their cars’ settings. In this respect, the team struggled to find the ideal set-up balance, as they had managed to achieve so successfully in Italy.

As a result, the two drivers – Kamui Kobayashi in the #7 car and Brendon Hartley in the #8 – qualified in 12th and 16th places respectively, with Kobayashi missing the top ten Hyperpole shoot-out by just 0.029 seconds. Shaking off the disappointment of starting the race outise the top ten, the team immediately returned their focus to the cars and did all they could to try and ensure a better result on race day.

WEC 2026: 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps

A record weekend crowd of more than 100,000 fans witnessed an intense battle among the closely matched Hypercar field. And after a disappointing qualifying result, the team realised that a decent, point-scoring outcome would be reliant on bold strategies and determined driving.

The #7 TR010 Hybrid started the race from 12th position, and despite the best efforts of drivers Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries remained outside the top ten during the opening stages. Incidents elsewhere on track and some bold overtaking manuoeuvres by team principal Kamui Kobayashi moved the car into eighth place. Then a safety car period at the end of the penultimate hour elevated the #7 into fourth and set up an exciting finale.

Meanwhile, the #8 TR010 Hybrid started further behind in 16th but deployed an entirely different strategy. A short early stop helped Brendon Hartley take a massive leap into second, a position that both Ryō Hirakawa and Sébastien Buemi held for long periods. Unfortunately, Buemi lost towards the end of the race when an issue around a pit stop meant the car wasn’t properly refuelled. That misjudgment required an additional, unplanned stop to give the car enough fuel to finish, which dropped the #8 out of the top ten before that final safety car period.

When racing resumed with just over 20 minutes remaining, Kobayashi was part of a thrilling four-car battle for second place. An action-packed finale saw the #7 car fight wheel-to-wheel with rivals before ultimately crossing the line in fifth, just six seconds away from the race-winning team. Buemi also had an eventful final few laps in the #8 Toyota and earned a point for tenth place.

A total of 12 points were earned in Belgium, a result that saw Toyota slip to second in the manufacturers’ championship. Nevertheless, there are six events remaining in the WEC 2026 season, and round three is the highlight of them all – the iconic 24 Hours of Le Mans. Toyota Racing now accelerates its preparations for this event, when it aims to challenge for a sixth victory at La Sarthe.