Toyota has officially slammed the door on the manufacturers' championship battle in the FIA World Endurance Championship, putting on a masterclass at the 6h of Barcelona to secure the title with a dominant 1-2 finish. According to Motorsport.com Italia, the Japanese manufacturer's TR010 Hybrid machines left zero room for error in Catalunya, sweeping the top steps and capitalizing on a dismal outing for their rivals to put the championship completely out of reach.
That stellar Catalan double-header lifts Toyota to a commanding 212 points overall. With a mere 44 points left on the table at the upcoming 6h of Monza, BMW M Motorsport sits stranded at 154 points and mathematically locked out of catching the squad from Tokyo. In fact, the Bavarian marque now finds itself looking nervously in the mirrors rather than ahead.
BMW faces a scrap to hold onto second in the standings against Ferrari, whose 499P #50 raced to a podium finish in Spain to reach 130 points just as the series prepares to race on home Italian soil. Further down the order, Cadillac remains mathematically in the fight for third with 118 points, followed by Alpine at 104, while Aston Martin sits at 58, Peugeot at 24, and Genesis holding 14.
With the constructors' trophy securely boxed up, the attention shifts entirely to a straight-up intra-team civil war for the drivers' crown at Monza. The #8 TR010 Hybrid crew of Hartley, Hirakawa, and Buemi delivered a win in Barcelona that catapults them to 114 points, handing them a 17-point cushion over their stablemates in the #7 machine, Kobayashi, Conway, and De Vries.
Behind the Toyota freight train, the battle for minor places remains wonderfully messy. BMW crews Magnussen/Marciello and Rast/Frijns share third position on 75 points, while Dries Vanthoor sits on 69 after missing a round in the #15 M Hybrid V8. Ferrari's #50 trio of Fuoco, Molina, and Nielsen sits level on 69 points following their Spanish podium, keeping hopes of a top-three championship finish alive, while the sister #51 of Calado, Giovinazzi, and Pier Guidi remains stuck at 59 and mathematically out of the running.
Over in the LMGT3 division, the fight is very much alive thanks to a stellar victory from Riccardo Pera alongside Yasser Shahin and Richard Lietz. Driving the #92 Porsche-Manthey 911 GT3 R, the trio climbed to 74 points to keep the pressure firmly on championship leader Jonny Edgar, who commands the standings with 92 points in the #33 Corvette-TF Sport entry.
With only 26 points left to fight for in Brianza, the lower steps of the GT podium are a powder keg. Edgar's stablemates, Nicki Catsburg and Ben Keating, sit scattered in the standings due to missing events, while Eastwood, Yoluç, and Dempsey hold 70 points in the #34 Corvette-TF Sport, and McIntosh, Harper, and Thompson sit on 66 in the #69 BMW-WRT. Meanwhile, the title door has slammed shut for both Alessio Rovera in the #21 Ferrari-AF Corse and Mattia Drudi in the #27 Aston Martin-Heart of Racing, left stranded on 64 and 62 points respectively after the Catalan round.
