What a way to close out a season. Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA took a stunning victory at the final round of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship at Monza in Italy on 8 November, while Toyota's Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, and Ryō Hirakawa did just enough to clinch the Drivers crown.
From third on the grid, the #38 Cadillac V-Series.R Hypercar meant business right away. Jack Aitken quickly pushed past pole-sitter Miguel Molina in the #50 Ferrari on the opening tour before wrestling the lead away from Genesis pilot Daniel Juncadella at the end of lap six. Aitken bossed the front of the field for his entire two-hour stint, then immediately hopped on a flight home anticipating the birth of his first child. Sébastien Bourdais stepped into the machine and soaked up intense pressure from compatriot Victor Martins in the Alpine and BMW's Sheldon van der Linde. When Earl Bamber took over the wheel for the final stretch, he initially checked out from Martins. While the young French charger clawed the gap back to barely a second-and-a-half near the end, Bamber steadied the ship to cross the line 5.607 seconds ahead of the #36 Alpine.
The result delivered a maiden WEC victory for the #38 trio and made them the highest-scoring line-up over the second half of the campaign. For Bourdais, it marked his first trip to the top step in over a decade in his final appearance for the squad, while JOTA extended its remarkable streak to 12 consecutive seasons with a championship race win. “I’m over-the-moon!” said Bamber, reflecting on a personal drought of more than nine years between victories. “Everybody at JOTA and Cadillac Racing has put in a lot of effort and worked so hard, and the car was faultless.”
Alpine bowed out of the series with its third rostrum finish of the year as Martins and Jules Gounon took runner-up honors, though the sister A424 Hypercar of Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi crashed out hard at the Parabolica barriers midway through hour four. Meanwhile, a chaotic finish saw the #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie driven by Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble lose a third-place finish to post-race penalties, robbing Aston Martin of a maiden Hypercar podium. That penalty bumped the #51 Ferrari 499P onto the bottom step, delighting the 75,181 tifosi on site. Things boiled over elsewhere on track too, with the #12 Cadillac and #94 Peugeot 9X8 trading blows in the closing laps until a heavy collision between Alex Lynn and Malthe Jakobsen littered the tarmac with debris and fired Lynn into the wall.
Toyota endured a tough afternoon at the Temple of Speed, scoring just a single point. But with the Manufacturers crown already locked up, finishing 10th was enough for Hirakawa, Buemi, and Hartley to hoist the Drivers trophy—marking an extraordinary fifth title for Buemi and Hartley. Over in LMGT3, The Bend Manthey claimed back-to-back wins with a brilliant drive. Yasser Shahin shook off an early drive-through penalty for pit-lane speeding before home hero Riccardo Pera charged forward, capitalizing on a perfectly timed safety car. In his 100th WEC start, Richard Lietz brought the #92 Porsche home ahead of Heart of Racing Team driver Eduardo Barrichello's Aston Martin. Though Manthey took the race win, Ben Keating, Jonny Edgar, and Nicky Catsburg finished third to secure the Teams trophy and Drivers glory for TF Sport and Edgar, ending Porsche's dominant run of LMGT3 titles.
