Jakobsen earns Peugeot's first Hypercar-era WEC pole at Spa

Peugeot TotalEnergies will start from pole position in a WEC race for the first time in the Hypercar era, after an astonishing performance from Malthe Jakobsen at Spa-Francorchamps. 

The Dane, who put a spin in the first stage of qualifying at Raidillon (which notably flat-spotted a set of Michelin tires from the team’s race allocation) behind him, nabbed pole for the No. 94 crew with a 2m00.653s in the Hyperpole shootout. It’s a lap that marked a memorable milestone for the French team, which became the first new Hypercar brand to take pole since Cadillac at Fuji back in 2024.

“It was not the ideal start, it’s not fun to go backwards up Eau Rouge. I calmed down, and then Hyperpole was very nice. I enjoyed every second with low fuel and new tires,” Jakobsen said. 

Will Stevens pushed hard in the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac, improved multiple times, but couldn’t quite rise from second to first on the leaderboard with his final heave. The Briton’s best lap was a 2m00.696s, 0.043s off pole.

The second row will be occupied by the two Alpine A424s, which have looked strong all weekend, with the No. 35 the faster of the pair with a hotlap that was less than a tenth off pole from Charles Milesi.

JOTA’s sister Cadillac will start fifth and was the final car to dip into the 2m00s, ahead of the two Aston Martin Valkyries, which look far more likely to be a factor in tomorrow’s race in sixth and seventh. 

The No. 50 Ferrari could only manage eighth, while the No. 93 Peugeot took ninth with a lap fractionally quicker than the No. 15 BMW in 10th.

Beyond Jakobsen’s error and recovery, the first stage of qualifying delivered some big surprises, with both Toyotas and two of the three Ferrari 499Ps failing to make it into Hyperpole. 

The No. 7 Toyota would end up 12th, slightly slower than the No. 20 BMW that just missed the cut. The privately-entered No. 83 Ferrari took 13th, with the No. 51 Ferrari down in 15th after an error on Antonio Giovinazzi’s final flyer, which means the reigning World Champions will start behind the faster of the two Genesis GMR-001s – the No. 19.

The No. 8 Toyota will also start behind Genesis’ leading car, in 16th overall, more than half a second off the cut-off line.

“It’s always difficult to predict, but we were hoping for a better qualifying,” Sebastien Buemi, who won the season-opener in the No. 8 Toyota, said. “We are disappointed, but we feel we have a much better car in the race than we had in qualifying, so we will see what we can do.”

The LMGT3 field in tomorrow’s race will be led across the line by an AKKODIS ASP Lexus RC F LMGT3 for the second consecutive season. Hadrien David followed up on Tom van Rompuy’s performance in the first stage of Qualifying, setting an impressive 2m16.612s in Hyperpole in the team’s No. 78 entry.

Zach Robichon stuck the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin on the front row with a 2m16.806s, a much-needed performance for the team after its disappointing visit to Imola.  Third was the No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang, making it three brands in the top three, with a 2m16.824s from Ben Tuck in the shootout.

Clemens Schmid finished the session fourth in the sister No. 87 Lexus, marginally faster than the No. 88 Ford Mustang driven by Giammarco Levorato in the second stage. 

The No. 21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari, No. 32 BMW, No. 61 Iron Lynx AMG, No. 91 Manthey Porsche and No. 34 Team Turkey Corvette completed the top 10.

Prior to Hyperpole, there was no late drama in LMGT3 qualifying, with none of the cars outside of the top 10 with five minutes to go managing to move above the cutline.

Alexander West came closest aboard the No. 58 Garage 59 McLaren LMGT3 Evo, coming up only 0.067s short of passing the No.78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus of Tom van Rompuy.

Success ballast is clearly taking its toll, as three of the top four in the championship failed to progress, with the No. 92 The Bend Manthey Porsche qualifying 12th, the No. 33 TF Sport Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R in 14th, and the Imola-winning No. 69 BMW down in 17th.

The No. 10 McLaren, which scored pole in Imola and almost won the race, also missed out on Hyperpole, and will start from 15th tomorrow.

The 2026 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps is set to get underway on Saturday at 14:00 local time.