Ferrari took control of the opening practice session for the 2026 WEC 6 Hours of Barcelona, placing three 499Ps inside the top four in Hypercar and also setting the pace with both Vista AF Corse entries later in the classification. Only Aston Martin prevented Ferrari from completely dominating the leading positions during the first 90 minutes of running at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
The first free practice session began at 11:30 CEST at Montmeló in Spain under stable weather conditions. The session was predominantly sunny, with an air temperature of 23.2°C and the track surface at 22°C. Friday is expected to be the warmest and sunniest day of the race weekend, making the teams’ work particularly interesting ahead of milder conditions on Saturday and rain forecast throughout Sunday.
Barcelona is one of the venues added to the revised championship schedule, with the 2026 WEC calendar bringing Barcelona and Monza into the closing stages of the season.
6 Hours of Barcelona FP1 Hypercar results
The opening 90-minute session passed without any significant interruptions apart from a few yellow flags. Both the Hypercar and LMGT3 fields completed a large number of runs as teams worked to understand a circuit that is unfamiliar with these cars for many competitors. The BMW Hypercars were an exception, having completed a test at Montmeló only a few weeks earlier.
The #83 Ferrari was fastest in the Hypercar class with a best lap of 1:31.893. It finished ahead of the #009 Aston Martin, which recorded a 1:31.998 and ended the session 0.107 seconds behind.
The two factory Ferrari 499Ps occupied third and fourth positions, both approximately a tenth and a half behind the pace-setting #83 car. That gave Ferrari three of the first four places after the opening session and an encouraging start to the Barcelona weekend.
The second Aston Martin followed, ahead of the first of the two Toyotas, which will be hoping to make a decisive move in the championship battle. Cadillac and Alpine were grouped in the middle of the classification, while the BMW entries finished further back.
The importance of Barcelona in the closing phase of the championship has increased following the calendar changes, with Ferrari’s 2026 WEC title fight shaped by the revised final rounds.
6 Hours of Barcelona FP1 LMGT3 results
The LMP2 category also completed its first free practice session. The prototype class continued to underline its competitiveness, with several crews separated by only a few tenths and the performance levels across the field extremely close. The first lap times left the order far from settled, with teams concentrating mainly on finding the best set-up ahead of the remaining sessions and the race.
At the end of the opening 90 minutes, the two Vista AF Corse Ferraris led the standings with respective lap times of 1:41.420 and 1:41.851. The two cars were separated by 0.431 seconds.
Racing Team Turkey by TF’s Corvette completed the provisional top three with a lap of 1:41.859, only eight thousandths behind the second Ferrari.
Behind the leading trio came McLaren, Mercedes, Lexus and BMW, with gaps ranging from six to eight tenths of a second.
The next track action at the 6 Hours of Barcelona will be Free Practice 2, scheduled to begin at 16:30 CEST.
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