The Lone Star Le Mans reshaped the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) title fights as the season completed its fifth round at the Circuit of The Americas (COTA).
Ferrari AF Corse claimed its first victory of the season through Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen after a late hydraulic failure denied Toyota Racing’s No. 7 crew a likely win. The result moved Ferrari considerably closer to Toyota and BMW in the Hypercar Manufacturers’ Championship, while the two crews that entered Texas tied at the top of the Drivers’ standings both failed to score.
Meanwhile, Heart of Racing Team produced a major LMGT3 breakthrough on home soil. Ian James, Zacharie Robichon and Mattia Drudi won with the No. 27 Aston Martin ahead of Manthey DK Engineering’s No. 91 Porsche, while the sister No. 23 Aston Martin completed the podium. Championship leader TF Sport failed to score, allowing several rivals to substantially reduce its previous advantage.
2026 WEC Hypercar Manufacturers’ standings after Round 5 at COTA
Ferrari made the largest gain in the Hypercar Manufacturers’ Championship after converting its strong COTA weekend into its first victory of 2026.
The Italian manufacturer began the weekend third on 88 points, 39 behind BMW and 44 behind Toyota. Antonio Giovinazzi first added the bonus point when he secured Hypercar pole for the No. 51 Ferrari in an extraordinary dead heat with Jack Aitken’s No. 38 Cadillac. Both drivers recorded a 1m52.445s, but Giovinazzi claimed pole because he set the time first.
The No. 51 ultimately finished outside the points in 11th, but the sister No. 50 delivered the maximum race score. Toyota’s No. 7 appeared set to win until a hydraulic pressure problem forced Nyck de Vries to retire with approximately 10 minutes remaining. Nielsen inherited the lead and completed the victory alongside Fuoco and Molina, giving Ferrari 25 race points in addition to its qualifying bonus.
Ferrari therefore collected 26 points across the weekend and increased its total to 114. That significantly reduced a deficit which had stood at 44 points to Toyota after São Paulo.
Toyota retained the championship lead despite another missed opportunity. The No. 7 scored nothing following its late retirement, while the No. 8 Toyota recovered from a pit-lane speeding penalty to finish sixth. The eight points from that result moved Toyota from 132 to 140, but its advantage over the chasing manufacturers continues to narrow.
BMW remains second but lost ground to both Toyota and Ferrari. The No. 20 M Hybrid V8 finished 12th after René Rast received an early penalty and failed to score, while Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor took eighth with the No. 15. BMW therefore added only four points and moves from 127 to 131.
Cadillac also strengthened its position through another competitive weekend. Aitken, Earl Bamber and Sébastien Bourdais finished second with the No. 38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R after a late penalty dropped Alpine’s No. 35 behind them. The No. 12 Cadillac added two more points in ninth, giving the American manufacturer 20 points from the race and taking its total to 80.
Alpine made another significant gain. António Félix da Costa, Charles Milesi and Ferdinand Habsburg finished third with the No. 35 A424, while Frédéric Makowiecki, Jules Gounon and Victor Martins recovered to fifth in the sister No. 36. Their combined 25 points move Alpine from 41 to 66 and reduce the deficit to Cadillac to 14 points.
Aston Martin also added 12 points after Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble equalled the Valkyrie’s best WEC result by finishing fourth with the No. 007. Genesis collected six through seventh for the No. 17 GMR-001, while Peugeot added one after the No. 94 9X8 completed the top 10. The official FIA WEC classification consequently leaves only 26 points covering the top three manufacturers.
Standings:
- Toyota — 140 pts
- BMW — 131 pts
- Ferrari — 114 pts
- Cadillac — 80 pts
- Alpine — 66 pts
- Aston Martin — 52 pts
- Peugeot — 16 pts
- Genesis — 12 pts
Toyota remains at the top, but COTA further reduced the advantage it built during the first half of the season. BMW sits nine points behind, while Ferrari has reduced its deficit to Toyota from 44 points after São Paulo to only 26.
Further back, Cadillac maintains fourth but now faces greater pressure from Alpine after both manufacturers scored heavily in Texas. Aston Martin remains sixth on 52, while Peugeot and Genesis continue further behind on 16 and 12 respectively.
2026 WEC Hypercar Drivers’ standings after Round 5
The Hypercar Drivers’ Championship remains tied at the top after both leading crews failed to score at COTA.
Rast and Robin Frijns retain first place on countback despite finishing 12th with the No. 20 BMW. They entered Texas level on 75 points with Toyota’s Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and de Vries, who appeared set to regain the outright championship lead before their late hydraulic failure.
The No. 7 Toyota ultimately retired after completing 161 laps and therefore also remains on 75. The official standings continue to place Rast and Frijns first ahead of the Toyota trio on countback.
Sheldon van der Linde remains third on 65 because officials classify him separately from his No. 20 teammates after he missed the opening round of the season.
Brendon Hartley, Ryō Hirakawa and Sébastien Buemi made the largest gain among the drivers immediately behind the leaders. Their sixth-place finish with the No. 8 Toyota added eight points and moved them to fourth on 64, placing them only 11 points away from the championship lead.
Alessandro Pier Guidi, Giovinazzi and James Calado slipped to fifth despite Giovinazzi’s dramatic Hypercar pole. The No. 51 Ferrari finished 11th and therefore added only the single qualifying bonus point, taking the reigning champions from 57 to 58.
Magnussen and Marciello remain sixth after finishing eighth for BMW. Their four points take them to 54. However, Fuoco, Molina and Nielsen made the biggest Drivers’ Championship move through their Lone Star Le Mans victory. The No. 50 Ferrari trio jumps from 11th on 29 points to seventh on 54. They are now only 21 points from the championship leaders.
Vanthoor remains separately classified from Magnussen and Marciello because he missed Imola. He added the same four COTA points and moves to 48 in eighth.
The No. 35 Alpine trio of da Costa, Milesi and Habsburg also made substantial progress. Their third-place result added 15 points and lifts them to ninth on 44. Norman Nato and Will Stevens also hold 44 after collecting two points with the No. 12 Cadillac. They sit 10th in the official classification.
Tincknell and Gamble move to 42 following their fourth-place finish for Aston Martin. Meanwhile Bamber and Bourdais climb to 34 after taking second. Aitken holds 30 because he remains separately classified from his No. 38 teammates.
Standings:
- BMW #20 — René Rast and Robin Frijns — 75 pts
- Toyota #7 — Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries — 75 pts
- BMW #20 — Sheldon van der Linde — 65 pts
- Toyota #8 — Brendon Hartley, Ryō Hirakawa and Sébastien Buemi — 64 pts
- Ferrari #51 — Alessandro Pier Guidi, Antonio Giovinazzi and James Calado — 58 pts
- BMW #15 — Kevin Magnussen and Raffaele Marciello — 54 pts
- Ferrari #50 — Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen — 54 pts
- BMW #15 — Dries Vanthoor — 48 pts
- Alpine #35 — António Félix da Costa, Charles Milesi and Ferdinand Habsburg — 44 pts
- Cadillac #12 — Norman Nato and Will Stevens — 44 pts
- Aston Martin #007 — Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble — 42 pts
- Cadillac #38 — Earl Bamber and Sébastien Bourdais — 34 pts
- Ferrari #83 — Philip Hanson, Robert Kubica and Yifei Ye — 31 pts
- Cadillac #38 — Jack Aitken — 30 pts
- Cadillac #12 — Louis Delétraz — 26 pts
- Alpine #36 — Frédéric Makowiecki, Jules Gounon and Victor Martins — 14 pts
- Genesis #17 — André Lotterer, Luis Felipe Derani and Mathys Jaubert — 10 pts
- Aston Martin #007 — Ross Gunn — 8 pts
- Peugeot #93 — Nick Cassidy, Paul di Resta and Stoffel Vandoorne — 6 pts
- Peugeot #94 — Loïc Duval, Malthe Jakobsen and Théo Pourchaire — 4 pts
- Cadillac #101 — Ricky Taylor — 2 pts
- Aston Martin #009 — Alex Riberas and Marco Sørensen — 2 pts
- Genesis #19 — Daniel Juncadella, Mathieu Jaminet and Paul-Loup Chatin — 0 pts
- Aston Martin #009 — Roman De Angelis — 0 pts
The official standings separate drivers when they have not contested the same rounds, even when they have shared the same car during part of the season.
COTA therefore leaves the championship lead unchanged but compresses the chasing group. Only 11 points cover the leading four positions, while Ferrari’s No. 50 crew has suddenly moved to within 21 points of the leaders after entering the weekend 46 points behind.
2026 WEC LMGT3 Teams’ standings after Round 5 at COTA
TF Sport retained its LMGT3 Teams’ Championship lead despite leaving COTA without points.
The No. 33 Corvette entered the weekend with a 27-point advantage after scoring at every previous round, including victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. However, Ben Keating spun at Turn 1 during the opening lap of the Lone Star Le Mans and the crew never fully recovered. Keating, Jonny Edgar and the returning Nicky Catsburg eventually finished 12th, leaving TF Sport on 76 points.
The result allowed VISTA AF Corse to emerge as its nearest challenger. François Hériau, Simon Mann and Alessio Rovera finished fourth with the No. 21 Ferrari after remaining among the strongest championship contenders throughout the race. Their 12 points increase the team’s total from 42 to 54 and move it from fifth to second.
The Bend Manthey remains on 49 but falls from second to third after a steering problem left the No. 92 Porsche 15th and outside the points. The crew had entered Texas as TF Sport’s closest challenger following three podiums in the opening four rounds.
Heart of Racing’s No. 23 made one of the weekend’s largest gains. Eduardo Barrichello secured LMGT3 pole as Aston Martin locked out the front row before he, Gray Newell and Jonny Adam finished third. The team collected 15 race points and the qualifying bonus, moving from ninth on 33 to fourth on 49.
Manthey DK Engineering climbed from 10th to fifth following its strongest result of the season. James Cottingham, Timur Boguslavskiy and Ayhancan Güven challenged for victory throughout the race before finishing second, adding 18 points and increasing the No. 91 Porsche’s total from 30 to 48.
The largest positional gain came from the winning No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin. James, Robichon and Drudi entered COTA 12th in the Teams’ standings on 19 points but collected the full 25 for victory. The result moves the crew to 44 and sixth, only five points behind the sister No. 23 Aston Martin and The Bend Manthey.
Team WRT’s No. 69 BMW and the No. 34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette failed to score and remain tied on 43 points. Their inactivity drops them from third and fourth after São Paulo to seventh and eighth respectively.
Further back, Iron Lynx scored with both Mercedes-AMGs. The No. 61 finished sixth to add eight points and move to 17 overall, while the No. 79 took seventh and its first six points of the campaign. Proton Competition also scored with both Mustangs as the No. 77 took fifth and the No. 88 finished ninth.
The FIA WEC LMGT3 classification therefore still places TF Sport comfortably ahead, although the battle immediately behind has tightened considerably.
Standings:
- Corvette #33 — TF Sport — 76 pts
- Ferrari #21 — VISTA AF Corse — 54 pts
- Porsche #92 — The Bend Manthey — 49 pts
- Aston Martin #23 — Heart of Racing Team — 49 pts
- Porsche #91 — Manthey DK Engineering — 48 pts
- Aston Martin #27 — Heart of Racing Team — 44 pts
- BMW #69 — Team WRT — 43 pts
- Corvette #34 — Racing Team Turkey by TF — 43 pts
- Lexus #87 — Akkodis ASP Team — 38 pts
- Lexus #78 — Akkodis ASP Team — 37 pts
- McLaren #10 — Garage 59 — 34 pts
- McLaren #58 — Garage 59 — 22 pts
- BMW #32 — Team WRT — 22 pts
- Mercedes-AMG #61 — Iron Lynx — 17 pts
- Ford #88 — Proton Competition — 16 pts
- Ford #77 — Proton Competition — 12 pts
- Mercedes-AMG #79 — Iron Lynx — 6 pts
- Ferrari #54 — VISTA AF Corse — 1 pt
TF Sport still holds the largest single advantage among the LMGT3 teams, but that margin has fallen from 27 points after São Paulo to 22 over VISTA AF Corse.
More importantly, the chasing group has compressed dramatically behind the championship leader. Only six points separate second-placed VISTA AF Corse from fifth-placed Manthey DK Engineering, while the winning No. 27 Aston Martin now sits only 10 points behind second.
2026 WEC LMGT3 Drivers’ standings after Round 5
Edgar remains at the top of the LMGT3 Drivers’ standings despite scoring no points at COTA.
The Briton stays on 76 after the difficult race for the No. 33 Corvette, while Catsburg remains second on 72. Catsburg missed São Paulo and therefore continues to sit separately from Edgar despite sharing the same car for the other rounds.
Keating also remains on 54 in third after failing to score. He holds the position ahead of Rovera, Hériau and Mann, who move from seventh to fourth after adding 12 points with the No. 21 Ferrari. Both entries now sit on 54, reducing the gap between Edgar and the nearest drivers from a rival team to 22 points.
Pera, Richard Lietz and Yasser Shahin remain on 49 after their steering problems prevented the No. 92 Porsche from scoring. However, Newell and Adam now join them on the same total after finishing third and receiving the bonus point secured by Barrichello’s LMGT3 Hyperpole performance.
Güven, Cottingham and Boguslavskiy make another significant move through their runner-up finish. The No. 91 Manthey crew climbs to seventh on 48 points and now trails the leading drivers from a rival entry by only six.
Barrichello remains separately classified from Newell and Adam and increases his total from 30 to 46 after combining the COTA pole bonus with third place. His score places him eighth overall, two points ahead of the victorious No. 27 crew.
James, Drudi and Robichon jump to ninth after their home victory. The 25-point score takes them from 19 to 44 and puts them directly ahead of the No. 69 BMW and No. 34 Corvette crews, which remain tied on 43 after failing to score.
Further down the standings, the Iron Lynx and Proton Competition drivers make gains after scoring in Texas. Martin Berry, Maxime Martin and Rui Andrade move to 17 points, while Giammarco Levorato, Logan Sargeant and Stefano Gattuso reach 16. Ben Tuck, Eric Powell and Sebastian Priaulx now hold 12 after their fifth-place finish with the No. 77 Ford. The complete order appears in the FIA WEC LMGT3 Drivers’ standings.
Standings:
- Corvette #33 — Jonny Edgar — 76 pts
- Corvette #33 — Nicky Catsburg — 72 pts
- Corvette #33 — Ben Keating — 54 pts
- Ferrari #21 — Alessio Rovera, François Hériau and Simon Mann — 54 pts
- Porsche #92 — Riccardo Pera, Richard Lietz and Yasser Shahin — 49 pts
- Aston Martin #23 — Gray Newell and Jonny Adam — 49 pts
- Porsche #91 — Ayhancan Güven, James Cottingham and Timur Boguslavskiy — 48 pts
- Aston Martin #23 — Eduardo Barrichello — 46 pts
- Aston Martin #27 — Ian James, Mattia Drudi and Zacharie Robichon — 44 pts
- BMW #69 — Anthony McIntosh, Daniel Harper and Parker Thompson — 43 pts
- Corvette #34 — Charlie Eastwood, Peter Dempsey and Salih Yoluç — 43 pts
- Lexus #87 — Clemens Schmid, José María López and Petru Umbrărescu — 38 pts
- Lexus #78 — Hadrien David and Tom Van Rompuy — 37 pts
- Lexus #78 — Jack Hawksworth — 36 pts
- McLaren #10 — Antares Au, Marvin Kirchhöfer and Thomas Fleming — 34 pts
- Corvette #33 — Blake McDonald — 22 pts
- McLaren #58 — Alexander West, Benjamin Goethe and Finn Gehrsitz — 22 pts
- BMW #32 — Augusto Farfus, Darren Leung and Sean Gelael — 22 pts
- Mercedes-AMG #61 — Martin Berry, Maxime Martin and Rui Andrade — 17 pts
- Ford #88 — Giammarco Levorato, Logan Sargeant and Stefano Gattuso — 16 pts
- Ford #77 — Ben Tuck, Eric Powell and Sebastian Priaulx — 12 pts
- Mercedes-AMG #79 — Johannes Zelger, Lin Hodenius and Matteo Cressoni — 6 pts
- Corvette #33 — Nicolás Varrone — 4 pts
- Aston Martin #23 — Kobe Pauwels — 3 pts
- Ferrari #54 — Davide Rigon, Francesco Castellacci and Thomas Flohr — 1 pt
- Lexus #78 — Esteban Masson — 1 pt
Edgar holds a four-point advantage over Catsburg, although both accumulated most of their points together in the No. 33 Corvette. Rovera, Hériau and Mann are now the highest-placed drivers from another entry and sit 22 points behind the leader.
However, the COTA results significantly tightened the group behind TF Sport. Only 11 points separate the No. 21 Ferrari trio on 54 from the No. 69 BMW and No. 34 Corvette crews on 43, while both Heart of Racing Aston Martins have moved firmly into the fight.
Lone Star Le Mans tightens both title fights before Fuji
The fifth round produced significant championship movement despite leaving the leaders in all four classifications unchanged.
Toyota still leads the Hypercar Manufacturers’ standings, but Ferrari’s first victory of the 2026 season at COTA has brought another manufacturer closer to the front. BMW sits nine points behind Toyota, while Ferrari has reduced its deficit to 26. Only 17 points now separate BMW and Ferrari in second and third.
The Hypercar Drivers’ Championship remains even closer. Rast and Frijns stay level on points with Kobayashi, Conway and de Vries, but Hartley, Hirakawa and Buemi have moved to within 11 points. Pier Guidi, Giovinazzi and Calado sit another six behind, while the winning No. 50 Ferrari crew has surged to 54 and now trails the leaders by only 21.
LMGT3 also looks considerably different after Texas. The No. 33 TF Sport Corvette retains both championship leads despite scoring nothing, but VISTA AF Corse has cut the Teams’ deficit to 22 points. The Bend Manthey, Heart of Racing’s No. 23, Manthey DK Engineering and the winning No. 27 Aston Martin now form a tightly packed chasing group.
Heart of Racing made the largest single-round impact. Barrichello first led an Aston Martin front-row lockout in LMGT3 Hyperpole before James, Robichon and Drudi won the race and Newell, Barrichello and Adam completed a one-three finish. The two Aston Martins now sit fourth and sixth in the Teams’ Championship, separated by only five points.
The 2026 FIA WEC season now heads to Fuji Speedway for the 6 Hours of Fuji from 25-27 September. Three rounds remain, and COTA has ensured that both Hypercar championships and the LMGT3 title fights arrive in Japan with considerably more teams and drivers still within striking distance.
