In Hypercar, Ferrari #83 emerged as the quickest of the Asian-linked entries through practice. Yifei Ye, alongside Robert Kubica and Philip Hanson, climbed to P2 in FP3 after already showing top-10 pace across the earlier sessions, establishing AF Corse as a contender before qualifying began. Toyota’s #7 and #8 crews spent much of practice working deeper in the field, with Kamui Kobayashi’s #7 Toyota and Ryō Hirakawa’s #8 entry focusing on long-run pace rather than headline times.
Qualifying compressed the field tightly. The #7 Toyota lined up P12, Ferrari #83 started P13, and the #8 Toyota P16, less than six tenths separating all three entries in the combined Hypercar order.
Across six hours of racing, all three crews delivered clean and consistent runs. Kobayashi, Mike Conway, and Nyck de Vries recovered to finish fifth overall for Toyota Gazoo Racing, while Ye, Kubica, and Hanson followed closely behind in sixth for AF Corse Ferrari. Hirakawa, Sébastien Buemi, and Brendon Hartley completed the top 10 in the sister Toyota after another steady run through the full race distance.
The defining story of the weekend, however, came in LMGT3.
Just weeks after a late retirement at Imola cost Garage 59 a likely class victory, Antares Au, Thomas Fleming, and Marvin Kirchhöfer returned at Spa with another opportunity. Starting 15th in class, the #10 McLaren built its race patiently across the six-hour distance. Au delivered controlled opening stints, Fleming drove the middle phase aggressively to move the car into contention, and Kirchhöfer managed the closing stages under increasing pressure at the front of the class battle.
The breakthrough finally arrived after a post-race penalty for a rival car elevated Garage 59 to the LMGT3 class victory, giving McLaren only its second-ever WEC LMGT3 win. From deep in the order to the top step, it was the kind of measured endurance performance built on consistency, execution, and timing.
Spa ultimately delivered strong returns across the board for the Asian contingent. Toyota left Belgium with two Hypercars inside the top 10, Ye continued Ferrari #83’s competitive start to the season, and Garage 59 completed one of the standout redemption stories of the WEC campaign so far. With Le Mans next, momentum across the group arrives at exactly the right moment.
