Winner – Toyota
Sébastien Buemi could hardly have wished for a better way to celebrate his 100th WEC start. Starting second, the Swiss driver quickly took the lead before team-mates Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa completed a commanding performance. Even the five-second penalty Buemi received for a starting procedure infringement made no difference.
“Actually, we hadn’t tested here, and we didn’t expect to be so strong,” admitted Hartley. Behind them, the #7 climbed from ninth on the grid to second, underlining a level of superiority that even a late Safety Car could not challenge.
In both wet and dry conditions, the two TR010 Hybrids pulled clear at every restart. Their dominance owed much to impeccable tyre management and was reflected in the laps-led statistics: Toyota led 190 of the 198 laps, with the #8 accounting for 186 of them.
A fourth victory of the season and an eighth manufacturers’ world title confirmed Toyota’s return to the form it had struggled to find last year. At Monza, its two crews will fight for the drivers’ crown.
Loser – BMW
Seventh for the #15 and 14th for the #20. It is fair to say BMW M Team WRT endured a nightmare in Catalonia. The warning signs had appeared in qualifying, where neither M Hybrid V8 managed to reach Hyperpole.
The team also made costly mistakes, most notably the tyre-pressure infringement that earned the #20 a 20-second penalty early in the race.
“We were already lacking pace with the Hypercar in qualifying,” lamented BMW M Motorsport boss Andreas Roos. “Our plan was to work our way forward in the race through strategy in the difficult weather conditions, which initially worked well. Unfortunately, neither car had a trouble-free race.”
Since its victory in São Paulo, BMW has scored just 27 points, compared with 80 for Toyota, 63 for Alpine, 58 for Cadillac and 42 for Ferrari. The Italian manufacturer has consequently closed to within just 15 points of BMW in the manufacturers’ standings. The championship titles, however, are now definitively out of reach.
Winner – The Bend Manthey
The foundations of victory were laid in the opening half-hour. On a still-damp track, Yasser Shahin passed the pole-sitting #10 McLaren before building a gap that successive neutralisations repeatedly forced him to establish all over again.
Riccardo Pera and Richard Lietz then controlled proceedings aboard The Bend Manthey’s #92 Porsche. “Yasser laid the foundation for this victory today,” stressed Lietz.
This first win of the season could hardly have come at a better time for the German outfit, now 61% owned by Porsche. With TF Sport’s #33 Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R finishing seventh, The Bend Manthey has closed to within 18 points of the British team in the championship standings.
Loser – Ferrari
A podium and two cars inside the top five would hardly constitute a disappointing result for Ferrari under normal circumstances. But Toyota’s performance in Barcelona definitively ended the Italian manufacturer’s remaining title hopes.
Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen finished third, albeit almost 40 seconds behind the winners. The #83 Ferrari 499P came home fifth. Meanwhile, the #51 dropped to 15th after suffering what the team described as a tyre-related issue, having previously fought its way up to fourth.
“I believe the team maximised the result possible in the conditions we faced,” said Ferdinando Cannizzo, Ferrari’s Head of Endurance Race Cars.
The conclusion is nevertheless a harsh one: Ferrari will head to the season finale at Monza with no world title left to fight for. It will, however, be determined to give its tifosi something to celebrate with a victory on home soil.
Winner – Michelin
Rain shortly before the start of the 6 Hours of Barcelona provided Michelin with ideal conditions for the competitive debut of its new wet-weather tyre, which contains 57% renewable or recycled materials.
Introducing a new product midway through the season had not pleased every competitor. Yet the initial concerns were quickly eased.
“It revealed real potential during the early rain and then proved remarkably consistent as the track started to dry,” said Pierre Alves, manager of Michelin Motorsport’s endurance racing programmes.
After the opening two stints, the Hypercar field switched to slicks, with some teams even managing to double-stint their right-hand tyres on a circuit notorious for its high levels of degradation.
Loser – Genesis
A maiden pole position and two cars among the top three in Hyperpole had given Genesis plenty to smile about on Saturday evening. By Sunday, those smiles had given way to rather more sombre expressions.
Barcelona offered Genesis a particularly cruel reminder of the challenges facing a manufacturer in its first Hypercar season. Mathys Jaubert’s historic pole had demonstrated the GMR-001’s outright pace, but the rain exposed other weaknesses.
Dani Juncadella went off in the opening laps, while both cars lost time through off-track excursions and technical issues. The #17 also received a drive-through penalty before eventually finishing 16th, five places behind its sister car.
“Perhaps we got a little carried away by the excitement of yesterday,” Genesis Magma Racing team principal Cyril Abiteboul told The Stint. “This was the first time we had really contested a race in the rain, and it exposed certain issues, particularly with the systems, that we will need to work on.”
Winner – Alex Quinn
Making a competitive debut in a Hypercar is a challenge in itself. Yet Alex Quinn lived up to Peugeot’s expectations, even if the British driver’s crew, which also included Paul Di Resta and Nick Cassidy, ultimately came away without points.
“He immediately adapted to the team and demonstrated his speed, maturity and ability to adapt,” said Peugeot Sport team principal Emmanuel Esnault.
“As far as the result is concerned, it’s frustrating because the rain allowed us to mix it with the cars ahead, but once the track dried, we fell back to where we belonged.”
Although the #93 crossed the finish line only 12th, Quinn’s performance gave Peugeot something to be pleased about.