Ferrari has laid down an immediate marker under the warm and sunny skies of Catalonia, topping both the Hypercar and LMGT3 categories during the opening free practice session ahead of the inaugural 6 Hours of Barcelona presented by Visit Qatar. The 35-car grid, featuring 17 Hypercars and 18 LMGT3 machines, got their first taste of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya this morning in preparation for Sunday's penultimate round of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship campaign.
In the headlining Hypercar class, Robert Kubica used all his prior experience from his eight Formula 1 appearances at the circuit to muscle the yellow #83 Ferrari 499P to the top of the timesheets with a blistering lap of 1m31.891s. That effort was just enough to pip the #009 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie by a slender 0.107s. Local ace Alex Riberas, born and raised right here in Barcelona, posted that Aston Martin's best time, fending off a strong challenge from the pair of factory Ferrari 499Ps right behind him.
Those factory machines were tightly packed, with the #51 Ferrari shading the #50 entry by a tiny 0.013s to secure third position. Fifth-fastest in the session went to the #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie as the British duo of Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble carried their recent strong form forward. Rounding out the top six was the championship-leading #8 TOYOTA RACING TR010 Hybrid Hypercar, shared by recent Fuji winners Sébastien Buemi, Ryō Hirakawa, and Brendon Hartley. Further down the order, the sister Toyota could only manage 11th, losing out on a top-ten spot to the #38 Cadillac in seventh, the #36 Alpine in eighth, the #12 Cadillac in ninth, and the #10 Genesis GMR-001 in 10th. Thankfully, the 90-minute session ran largely without trouble, needing only a brief procedural Full Course Yellow to interrupt the green flag running.
Over in LMGT3, the Maranello dominance continued as the VISTA AF Corse 296 Evos locked out the top two spots. It was Alessio Rovera, sharing the #21 car with François Hériau and Simon Mann, who laid down the benchmark lap, beating the sister #54 entry of Thomas Flohr, Davide Rigon, and Francesco Castellacci by 0.431s.
Behind the red sweep, Racing Team Turkey by TF claimed third as the Corvette campaign heats up in pursuit of a third victory this season. Garage 59 showed impressive pace with the #10 McLaren 720S Evo driven by Antares Au, Thomas Fleming, and Marvin Kirchhöfer taking fourth, while Iron Lynx slotted into fifth with the #61 Mercedes-AMG of Maxime Martin, Rui Andrade, and Martin Berry. Akkodis ASP Team grabbed sixth with the #78 Lexus RC F, featuring Hadrien David continuing an impressive FIA WEC rookie campaign alongside Esteban Masson and Tom Van Rompuy. Meanwhile, the championship-leading TF Sport crew ended up 10th fastest as Jonny Edgar homes in on the 2026 LMGT3 Drivers' title, aided by teammates Ben Keating and Nicky Catsburg having missed earlier rounds this year.
