Toyota triumph
The opening round of the 2026 FIA WEC at Imola was Toyota’s 100th WEC race and proved to be its 50th win.
It also marked to return to the factory team running under the Toyota Racing brand after a decade as Toyota Gazoo Racing and was also a win on the debut of the re-named and restyled TR010 Hybrid.
With the #8 Toyota taking the win at Imola, Toyota are now on a run of two consecutive overall WEC race wins after the #7 GR010 Hybrid won the 2025 season finale at Bahrain .
Sebastien Buemi extends his record number of overall FIA WEC wins to 27, Brendon Hartley scored his 24th overall win with Rio Hirakawa now on seven.
Remembering Juha
The Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 hypercar and M4 GT3 Evo LMGT3 cars all carried ‘black ribbon’ tributes in memory of NLS racer Juha Miettinen who died after an accident in the early stages of yesterday’s N24 Qualifying race.
His passing was also marked on-air during the formation laps for the race by the WEC TV crew.
BMW back on top
The win for the #69 BMW in LMGT3 was the first for the marque in the class since Imola in 2024, the victory then taken by WRT’s #31 crew, all three of whom crew the sister 2026 #32 BMW M4 GT3 Evo! The class win was the first in the FIA WEC for all three drivers, Tony McIntosh, Parker Thompson and BMW factory driver Dan Harper.
Vincent Vosse (Team Principal): “First victory in the first race of the season – an excellent result for our #69 crew. I am absolutely delighted for our LMGT3 team about the win and also the top result for car number 32. That is truly exceptional. Fifth and seventh place with our two Hypercars are strong results. Of course, we would have preferred to be on the podium, but it is still a good start to the season that brings us important points. The drivers did an excellent and flawless job.
“I want to take the opportunity to dedicate this victory to Juha Miettinen, who passed away yesterday due to his passion at the Nürburgring.”
Logan’s Run
Logan Sargeant, making his FIA WEC debut in the #88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 Evo put up a solid fight well in the points positions but suffered with a failed air conditioning system that saw the American ex F1 racer require medical care after his race stint. The car would finish 8th in class.
Spotted in the paddock
Amongst those spotted in the paddock over the weekend were Ferrari F1 team Principal Fred Vasseur, Ferrari Chairman John Elkann, Father and Daughter Jackie and Vanina Ickx, the former acting in his capacity as a Genesis Magma racing brand ambassador.
Iron Dame Vanina was joined in the paddock by bellow 2025 ‘Dame’ Michelle Gatting with Claudio Schiavoni and Deborah Meyer both also in attendance, Claudio pronouncing himself ready to return to track action in 2027.
Ex-WEC racer Sam Bird was on Eurosport presenter duties with multiple WEC race winner Roman Rusinov supporting the Legends of Le Mans entry of his Oreca 05.
Amongst the Pros assisting with the set-up laps for the Legends were Richard Bradley, Alfie Briggs, Pierre Kaffer, Manu Collard Gillian Henrion.
Saturday morning saw birthday boy Ant Davidson re-aquaint himself with a couple of his old girlfriend in the shape of the Kriton Lentoudis Peugeot 908 and Christian Albrecht’s glorious Lola Aston Martin.
The race was green flagged by current F1 World Championship points leading Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli.
The official attendance over the race weekend numbered 92,175, some 17,000 more than the previous record WEC attendance at Imola in 2024. Attendance dipped a little in 2025 with the race last year held on Easter Sunday.
Legends of Le Mans provide stirring race morning alarm call
The second 40-minute race of the weekend for the new Legends of Le Mans series by Peter Auto provided a stirring sound track for racegoers as they arrived at the circuit on Sunday morning.
Christian Albrecht eventually overhauled a spirited Shaun Lynn, V12 Petrol fuelled Lola Aston Martin vs V12 diesel powered Peugeot 908 HDI FAP. Stuart Wiltshire made it a Peugeot 2-3 in his 2011 90X.
Michel Frey was in the mix for a while until he lost a wheel on his sonorous ex-Intersport Judd V10-powered Lola.
In LMP2 Francois Perrodo had a second consecutive win after a joyous run in the Porsche RS Spyder. He finished ahead of invitational entry Matthieu Lahaye win an Oak Pescarolo with Evgeny Kireev finishing second in a well-populated LMP2 class in Roman Rusinov’s 2015 G-Drive Oreca 05 Nissan.
Andy Cummings completed the class podium in his JWA-run Pescarolo.
The Aston Martin Vantage AMR GTE of Franz Wunderlich overcame the early race resistance of the little Lotus Evers GTE of Prof.Wolfgang Henseler to take the GTE Win.
LEGENDS OF LE MANS RACE 2 RESULT >>>
Legends of Le Mans returns to support the Spa WEC race weekend in three weeks time.
