Genesis scores first championship points at Spa

WECHyperCar

May 11

The AF Corse Ferrari finished sixth, ahead of a disappointing Peugeot, Cadillac, and Toyota #8. The Genesis team finished eighth.

Ferrari #83 sixth

The trio of the Ferrari #83 entered by the privateer AF Corse team, which started 13th with Phil Hanson – handed over to another Prancing Horse official driver Yifei Ye – managed to move into the upper part of the standings at the end with Robert Kubica. The great comeback of the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans winners allowed the yellow-liveried Ferrari to finish sixth.

Team Peugeot TotalEnergies scores its first points

The 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps did not fully reward Team Peugeot TotalEnergies, but several positives can be taken away from this race in preparation for Le Mans. The first pole position for the PEUGEOT 9X8 in the FIA World Endurance Championship, the strong opening stint from the #94, and the fastest race lap set by the #93 at the end of the event.

The PEUGEOT 9X8 #93 started from 9th on the grid with Paul Di Resta, who completed a clean opening stint. At mid-race, the car was running 14th through the sequence of pit stops, with Nick Cassidy taking over for a double stint. In the final hour, in front of his home crowd, Stoffel Vandoorne set the fastest lap of the race (2:04.177) and capitalized on several incidents to bring the PEUGEOT 9X8 back to 7th at the finish.

Paul di Resta (PEUGEOT 9X8 #93): “It was difficult to fight for points in traffic with all the Safety Cars and chaos, but we still achieved our goal with P7. We are already focused on Le Mans.”

Nick Cassidy (PEUGEOT 9X8 #93): “After a difficult Imola for me, I’m happy as I completed a strong double stint. I felt good in the car, and it was a valuable experience ahead of Le Mans.”

Stoffel Vandoorne (PEUGEOT 9X8 #93): “We scored our first points of the season, so it’s not too bad. Overall, it was a tough race, we were stuck in traffic and the pace was difficult to show. In the final part, with cooler temperatures, the car came alive and felt much stronger, which allowed me to set the fastest lap at my home race.” Source: Peugeot Sport

First points for Genesis

Genesis Magma Racing scored its first points in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), as Pipo Derani brought the #17 GMR-001 Hypercar home in eighth place at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. The team took advantage of an aggressive strategy decision in the final hour of the race, with the Brazilian able to defend his position in the final part of the race.

André Lotterer held his position at the start of the race. Good pace and a strategy decision to only partially fuel Jaubert for his second stint of the race allowed the #17 car to climb up to tenth before the Frenchman made way for Pipo Derani with just over 2:30 remaining in the race.

Facing an issue that left the car down on power, the team made another aggressive strategy decision at the final stop under a Virtual Safety Car that, though giving the team track position, left Derani at a disadvantage compared to those around him. Taking the restart with 34 minutes remaining in eighth place, he was able to move up as others suffered incidents ahead. After a brief exchange of positions on a final restart ten minutes later, where Derani briefly ran as high as sixth, he settled into eighth place. Defending superbly through the closing stages against drivers with newer tyres, he held on to score Genesis Magma Racing’s first points in just the second start for the team.

André Lotterer (#17 GMR-001 Hypercar): “It‘s very emotional for the whole team to have this result. The strategy came towards us, we were a bit aggressive, but we take it. It's a very big day for Genesis Magma Racing and the whole brand to be able to score our first points so early in this journey. Pipo did some amazing defending. It was really a tough job for him, to be longer on the tires and also we had issues with the car that he had to manage, but he kept his cool and really really did a good job. What we did in Imola was a great achievement for the team. We had similar aims to be at the finish line and establish ourselves in this championship. But secretly, I had hopes for our first points and they came.”

Mathys Jaubert (#17 GMR-001 Hypercar): “The race was amazing. As we did in ELMS last year, Mathieu Leroy [#17 race engineer] did a mega job on the strategy. We might have been a bit lucky with the last full course yellow, but we had to be in the right place to be lucky. What a race. We did a pretty good job. For me, the #17 GMR-001 Hypercar was great, no issues at all. We were able, like in Imola, to keep the other cars behind when we were fighting for top ten positions. So, the first points is a good step. Now the next race is Le Mans. It's going to be a new one for the team and the longest one. It's a bit harder and we need to keep working to improve. We will take many lessons from this one, because now the focus is to take the experience we have and prepare for our 24 Hours race.”

Pipo Derani (#17 GMR-001 Hypercar): “We were battling some issues from the moment I got in the car. From that moment, I was trying to survive, understand what we could do to improve, and get the #17 GMR-001 Hypercar to the checkered flag. I kept pushing Mathieu Leroy for a strategy to get track position in order to try and maybe hold the cars behind, because it was the only way we would get to the points. I was fighting to manage the energy, asking the engineers the numbers, but at the end we did just that, and I was able to hold quite a few cars behind. I just kept my head down. I‘m very proud of the team, and to be able to bring the first points home to Genesis Magma Racing. It's been a long time coming, but yet so early days for us.” Source: Genesis Magma Racing

Challenging race for Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA

Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA faced a challenging second round of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) in Spa-Francorchamps.

The #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R, lined up on the front row of the grid in P2 for the six hour race, with Will Stevens at the wheel. Stevens took the race lead on the opening lap and settled into a strong and controlled stint. Unfortunately the #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R received a penalty for overtaking track limits, with five seconds being added to the pitstop, and dropped down the field. Caught up in the middle of the pack and fighting in dirty air meant a challenging second half of the race. After six hours of racing, the #12 took the chequered flag in P9.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Spa-Francorchamps 2026. Cadillac V-Series.R #12

Norman Nato (#12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R): “The start of the race was good, but from the middle of the race onwards we started to drop back position. It’s not the race we expected, but there are a lot of learnings for Le Mans and a lot of positives to take away, despite the result.” Source: Cadillac Racing

#8 TR010 HYBRID from second to 10th

The #8 TR010 HYBRID of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa ran second for much of the race before a podium slipped away in the closing stages.

Starting 16th, the #8 TR010 HYBRID deployed an alternative strategy early in the race. A short early first stop helped Brendon move into second, a position both Ryō and Sébastien held for long periods. However, Sébastien lost out late in the last hour when an issue around a pit stop meant the #8 was not fully refuelled. That required an additional stop, dropping the #8 out of the top 10 before the final safety car.

Sébastien Buemi (Driver, car #8): “We made a great decision to offset our strategy, and it was going well. Unfortunately, we then lost all those positions. It will hurt for a bit but that’s racing. Car #7 salvaged some points which is positive for the team, but it could have been more. We will process everything and work to be stronger when it matters in Le Mans.”

Brendon Hartley (Driver, car #8): “We ended up with one point, but I can’t help but feel disappointed because we were looking on for a podium. These things can happen; it’s all a team effort and we stand together. On the positive side, it was looking really good for us at one moment and it was an incredible race, full of excitement at the end. We all fought hard and showed good fighting spirit.”

Ryō Hirakawa (Driver, car #8): “We had a chance to get on the podium and maybe we could even have fought for victory. To be honest, I am very disappointed at the moment. We need to review what happened and try to avoid it in the future. Even though it was a frustrating result for our car, Le Mans is next so we need to maximise everything for that and we will be working hard.” Source: Toyota Racing

Overall classification Hypercars