Mathys Jaubert delivered a stunning breakthrough for Genesis Magma Racing this afternoon, storming to a historic pole position for the 6 Hours of Barcelona presented by Visit Qatar. The new Hypercar brand has been building genuine momentum during its maiden campaign in the FIA World Endurance Championship, and Jaubert stamped that progress across the timing screens in Spain.
Now, here is the thing: the progress was already visible during practice, where the team posted the second-fastest effort in two of the three free practice sessions around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Mathieu Jaminet then turned up the heat by topping the opening part of qualifying, with Jaubert slotting in right behind him in third. When the ten-minute Hyperpole shootout arrived, the younger Frenchman soared straight to the summit in the #17 Genesis GMR-001 Hypercar he shares with André Lotterer and ‘Pipo’ Derani.
"It’s an incredible feeling!" enthused Jaubert, affectionately known as ‘Baby Driver’ in the paddock. "The team did a fantastic job to get both myself and Mathieu inside the top three, and the car was just amazing. The track was very different compared to free practice. It was changing a lot and the grip level was pretty low, which made things tricky, but we adopted the right strategy on tyres and were able to put everything together and deliver."
Jaubert set two laps quick enough to lock down the top spot for Sunday's penultimate round of the 2026 FIA WEC season. In doing so, he wrote his name into the record books as the youngest outright pole-sitter in the history of the series at the age of only 21.
Jaminet fought through two brief on-track stoppages in the sister #19 Genesis—one during qualifying and another in Hyperpole—to claim third. The rapid pair of GMR-001 Hypercars ended up sandwiching the title-chasing #8 TOYOTA RACING TR010 Hybrid driven by Ryō Hirakawa, who shares his machine with Sébastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley ahead of a potential Drivers' world championship coronation on Sunday.
Further down the order, Alpine Endurance Team showed serious pace once more as Charles Milesi locked down fourth in the #35 A424. Will Stevens followed in the #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R, while Robert Kubica took sixth in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P as the highest-placed Prancing Horse entry. The #36 Alpine, #50 Ferrari, #7 Toyota, and #38 Cadillac rounded out the top ten positions on the grid.
Not everyone had a smooth afternoon, unfortunately. The casualties of the opening qualifying segment included the title-defending #51 Ferrari 499P, both Aston Martin Valkyries despite their strong free practice pace, and both BMW M Team WRT entries as the Bavarian marque's difficult run continued. The inaugural 6 Hours of Barcelona presented by Visit Qatar gets underway tomorrow at 12:00 local time (CEST).
