That is how you answer a drought. The #92 The Bend Manthey Porsche 911 LMGT3 machine put on a clinic in Spain on 18 October, taking a commanding triumph at the 6 Hours of Barcelona presented by Visit Qatar. Yasser Shahin, Riccardo Pera, and Richard Lietz drove the German manufacturer to its first win of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship campaign in style, leading the race from hour one onward to cross the line just under five seconds clear of the chasing pack. It also makes them the seventh different winner from the seven races held this year, perfectly illustrating just how brutal this category is, while finally breaking the marque's longest winless streak in LMGT3 since their triumph at Le Mans last year.
The race itself kicked off with absolute chaos. Polesitter Antares Au initially grabbed the lead in the #10 Garage 59 McLaren, but an early Virtual Safety Car shuffled the order. Right before that, Turn 1 descended into madness when Stefano Gattuso spun the #88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang after contact from Martin Berry in the #61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG. That triggered a chain reaction that slammed James Cottingham's #91 Manthey DK Engineering Porsche into Hadrien David’s Akkodis ASP Team Lexus.
Up front, though, Shahin simply vanished into the distance. The #92 Porsche controlled the race while a revolving cast chased them, including the two TF Sport-run Corvettes and the Racing Team Turkey entry holding down second and third through the middle hours. But the TF Sport challenge unravelled. The title-leading #33 Corvette, started by Ben Keating, hit heavy congestion in the pits during the driver change to drivers' title leader Jonny Edgar. A subsequent 10-second penalty for Edgar killed any remaining momentum.
That opened the door for Daniel Harper to drag the #69 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 into contention, grabbing second place during the fourth hour. But Harper had no answer for a charging Marvin Kirchhoefer in the #10 Garage 59 McLaren, which had started with Au and passed through Tom Fleming's hands. Even a puncture following contact with the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang could not stop the papaya machine, and Kirchhoefer made his move stick on Harper in the final knockings of the race to secure second position.
Behind them, the #34 Racing Team Turkey Corvette trio of Salih Yoluc, Peter Dempsey, and Charlie Eastwood drove home to fourth. They remain right in the title hunt alongside the sister #33 car of Keating, Edgar, and Nicky Catsburg, which salvaged seventh after Maxime Martin muscled his #61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 past on the very final lap.
When the dust settled, Edgar’s championship points lead over the Barcelona-winning #92 crew was slashed to 18 points, with the #34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette sitting just four points further back. That leaves us with a genuinely tense title fight heading into the finale at Monza next month.
