The World Endurance Championship returns to one of its most beautiful venues this weekend with the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa, and the early signs from Friday running are that the hypercar fight that opened in Imola is about to widen.
Toyota arrive at Spa as the reigning Imola winners, having marked the team's 100th WEC race with a victory in their brand-new aerodynamic configuration. Ferrari pushed them hard in Italy and were quickest in FP1 at Spa, with Antonio Fuoco topping the times for the third year in a row at this circuit. But Spa is a different proposition from Imola: lower downforce, a tricky middle sector, and a microclimate that can drag rain across the Ardennes at any moment. The forecast looks largely dry, but as the broadcast preview team put it, “it's a microclimate here. You just never know what's going to happen.”
The paddock buzz is around Alpine. The French manufacturer locked out the front of FP2 with a 1-2 – immediately dubbed the “Alpine twin peaks” – and looked at home over the curbs and through the speed traps. “Great job from Alpine,” the preview noted. “They've got a really rapid car. They look to have a really nice balance with that. They could be the manufacturers I talked about at the start who get in amongst that Toyota–Ferrari dynamic.” Alpine are chasing their third hypercar podium in four races at Spa, and have two drivers in one of their cars who could yet take their first WEC wins this weekend.
BMW WRT, meanwhile, have a home race to chase down. The Belgian-based Vanthoor squad, with Thierry Tassin in the strategy group, have not delivered in the hypercar class on home ground in recent years – “a borderline hex or curse,” as the preview put it – but the team's dual programme with IMSA is now feeding meaningful data into the Spa effort. Aston Martin's pair of Valkyries also look transformed compared to Imola: especially quick through sector one, with the chassis far better suited to Spa's flowing layout.
“Thirty, sixty – I didn't realise that. That's cool,” Aston driver Harry Tincknell said when reminded that this is his 60th WEC weekend. “Makes me feel slightly old, but we're on the way to 100. Let's hope we can get there.” On the car itself, Tincknell said: “Definitely the track suits the Valkyrie a lot more. Compared to Imola, every track is going to be better for us than there. The fact that we scored points and we're really competitive and fighting with the other cars really well – if things had gone slightly differently in terms of traffic management and stuff, maybe we could have been top five or so on pace. We're going into this weekend buoyed with confidence.”
The Spa entry list also welcomes back the IMSA crossover drivers who missed Imola because of the Long Beach clash. Cadillac's super-sub Louis Deletraz steps into the JOTA Cadillac in place of the injured Alex Lynn, and Jack Aitken begins his full WEC campaign. “It's awesome to be here,” Deletraz said. “First thing is, I hope I exit well soon. But I'm very glad to be back in WEC, very happy to work with JOTA and Cadillac. I know the car very well from IMSA. JOTA – they're probably one of the best teams on the grid for me, and always was really hard to beat. So to be with them this weekend is super interesting and I'm really excited for the race. I think we can do well.” Aitken's only previous Spa start in WEC was three years ago when he didn't actually get to race; this time, he is committed for the season.
In LMGT3, Imola winners Walkenhorst BMW WRT will try to repeat from a stronger qualifying position, but it is AF Corse's number 21 Ferrari that has been the FP2 pacesetter, with Alessio Rovera and Francesco Castellacci looking to take their second straight win. Garage 59's McLaren is no longer at the front but, as the broadcast team put it, “over the six-hour duration of the race, I think they're going to be there or thereabouts.” Lexus had bad luck again as Tom Vanmpo lost a wheel in FP2.
“We did an exceptional job in Imola,” McLaren's Thomas Fleming said, looking back at his debut points in LMGT3. “Considering it was the team's debut in the series, they did everything right. It's not like the win up until that point in IMA was handed to us. We had to fight hard against a lot of very experienced drivers and teams. There was a few things to learn from and do better, but that's all a part of growing and learning.”
The race goes green at 2pm local time on Saturday, and with Spa's habit of producing first-time WEC winners – 41 of them on its honour roll – the only safe prediction is the most predictable one. As the broadcast team's Sam Smith offered as his bold call: “It rains during the race. Let's see if we can get that.” At Spa, that's not bold at all.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/wec-spa-2026-race-preview-alpine-bmw-aston-valkyrie-toyota-ferrari). Visit for full coverage.*
