BMW takes Spa 6 Hours 1-2 win after Kevin Magnussen defensive masterclass

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MadisonMiami (FL)MichiganNorth TexasNotre DameOhio StateOklahomaOle MissOregonTexas A&MTexasTexas TechTulaneUSCUtahVanderbiltVirginiaNCAAMHomeTeamsScores & ScheduleStandingsTransfer Portal RankingsNBA DraftBracketAlabamaArizonaArkansasDukeFloridaGonzagaHoustonIllinoisIowaIowa StateKansasLouisvilleMiami (FL)Michigan StateMichiganNebraskaPurdueSt. John'sTennesseeTexasTexas TechUConnVanderbiltVirginiaWisconsinPeakMMAHomeMotorsportsHomePodcastsNASCARCultureHomeMemorabilia & CollectiblesGamingHomeSports BettingHomeFantasy FootballOddsNFL PicksMan City vs. BrentfordMourinho's Past GloriesWest Ham's Defensive HopesAnalysisBMW takes Spa 6 Hours 1-2 win after Kevin Magnussen defensive masterclassThe #20 BMW car on its way to victory in the 2026 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. Ivan Couturier / Getty Images Share articleSPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium — BMW secured its first Hypercar win in the World Endurance Championship in style, with a 1-2 finish in Saturday’s 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps after defeating Ferrari and Toyota. Robin Frijns, Rene Rast and Sheldon van der Linde shared duties in the #20 BMW M Hybrid across the six-hour race, taking the car from 11th on the grid to win by 1.9-seconds. A decision to pit early and short-fuel helped move Rast into the lead at the end of the first hour, jumping the BMW ahead of the cars of Cadillac and Alpine. The German driver then made use of clean air to pull out an advantage on the rest of the field. By the time the leaders converged on strategy with just over two hours of the race remaining, when a safety car period neutralized the race, strong stints from van der Linde and Frijns had helped cement their car’s advantage. The lead BMW trio were joined on the podium by Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor in the sister #15 BMW, after this crew benefitted from the safety car period, as well as an opportune overtake by Vanthoor to pass Alpine’s Charles Milesi on the subsequent restart. Two safety car periods in the final hour left Magnussen under significant pressure for the final stint as he fended off Ferrari’s Antonio Fuoco with Frijns only just ahead. Fuoco had fresher tires and was never more than a few tenths of a second behind the second BMW. But Magnussen held on to complete a 1-2 finish for BMW as Frijns scampered clear in the lead, which capped off a perfect day for the German manufacturer. Fuoco and Ferrari held on for third. Since returning to the top category of sports car racing in 2024, BMW had scored just two podium finishes in the WEC with its Hypercar design. On Saturday, it doubled that tally in mightily impressive style. From 10th and 11th on the grid, BMW didn’t look like a threat going into the race. But after the #20 car was moved onto its alternative strategy, coming into the pits early so it could escape the Hypercar traffic at the front of the field, Rast was able to unleash its evident pace and move firmly into the victory conversation. Stint by stint, Rast and his crew-mates strengthened their hold on the race, before the safety car period with two hours remaining put them clear at the front. It was then about negotiating the late flurry of incidents and safety cars before bringing the win home, albeit with an investigation noted by race control for the final restart, the result of which is yet to be announced. Magnussen’s performance in the final stint deserves acclaim. Through his long Formula 1 career, the Dane made his name on aggressive efforts in defense and attack, and never leaving his rivals an inch. All of that rang true again on Saturday, as he fended off Fuoco superbly despite the Ferrari having four fresh tires compared to the worn set on Magnussen’s BMW. The result marked Magnussen’s first podium appearance in any category since 2021, when he was racing in the American IMSA sports car series. Frijns, van der Linde and Rast, meanwhile, could take pride in scoring BMW’s first victory in the top category of global sports car racing since the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1999. In the opening stages, Cadillac looked like a genuine contender for the win at Spa, only for its day to gradually unravel and leave it with a mere ninth-place finish to show for its efforts. After starting second, Will Stevens grabbed the lead on the opening lap with a move on the pole-sitting #94 Peugeot at Les Combes, but he struggled to build much of a gap despite being in clean air. The #12 Cadillac kept cycling to the head of the pack whenever the out-of-sequence BMW and Toyota cars came into the pits, only for it to be jumped by Alpine’s #35 car in the pits at the halfway point. A tricky stint for Louis Deletraz once he’d taken over from Stevens included a five-second time penalty before the Swiss driver was passed by both Aston Martin driver Alex Riberas and Nicklas Nielsen in the Ferrari he shared with Fuoco and Miguel Molina. Norman Nato was at the wheel of the #12 Cadillac for the closing couple of hours, sitting seventh after this safety car period, but he too struggled after rolling the dice on using soft tires so late on. Nato slid out of the points, before recovering to ninth after some late drama where the #51 Ferrari and #009 Aston Martin were eliminated in separate incidents, as well as a spin for Antonio Felix da Costa at the top of Raidillon in the #35 Alpine that dropped him back with just a few laps remaining. The #38 Cadillac had its crew’s hopes of a big result end within the opening hour after contact between Earl Bamber and the #92 GT3 Porsche. Bamber returned to the pits and the car was wheeled into the garage due to a brake hydraulics issue, leaving it several laps down, before the car was retired with two hours remaining due to a loss of drive. Toyota and Ferrari have together won the last eight runnings of the 24 Hours of Le Mans between them. If Spa is a taste of things to come, they’ll face a big challenge to make it nine in a row next month. Spa serves as the final dress rehearsal before Le Mans, the centerpiece of the WEC season. It may be a very different animal, the track being just half the length and the race lasting just six hours, but it gives all the teams and drivers a chance to bed in prior to their visit to France. The long acceleration zones also mirror the many straights at the Le Mans track. Ferrari came away from Spa with a podium thanks to Fuoco, Molina and Nielsen. Molina had moved the team into contention at the front through the second hour, but a stuck wheelnut then cost the crew 20 seconds in the pits, acting as a big setback for their hopes. Nielsen and Fuoco clawed much of the time back, but couldn’t break up the BMWs at the front in the tense finale. The other two Ferrari Hypercars endured tougher races and never flirted with the top five positions. The #51 Ferrari was taken out by Augusto Farfus in a GT3 car with an hour remaining, while the #83 car, which won Le Mans last year, eventually crossed the line in sixth thanks to the chaos in the closing stages. Toyota, however, never looked in serious contention at Spa, despite defeating Ferrari to win the WEC season-opener at Imola last month. Neither of its TR010 Hybrid cars made it through to Hyperpole, the final stage of qualifying, on Friday, and it was only through going off-piste with its strategy that the #8 Toyota was able to spend parts of the race running second. Even then, Toyota never had the outright pace of BMW, with the #8 Toyota eventually tumbling out of the top 10 after two stops on consecutive laps. The sister #7 car was fourth for the final restart, with Kamui Kobayashi closely tailing Magnussen and Fuoco, but he dropped back and was ultimately passed by Tom Gamble, who grabbed fourth for Aston Martin with just four minutes remaining. A wheel-to-wheel battle to the finish of the slower GT3 category was ultimately decided by a time penalty that handed victory to Garage 59’s #10 McLaren 720S crew. After Proton Competition’s pair of Ford Mustangs felll out of contention — one due a spin, the other due to a penalty — the GT3 race looked to be moving the way of Vista AF Corse’s #21 Ferrari, which led at half distance. After taking over from starter Antares Au, Thomas Fleming and then Marvin Kirchhöfer worked the #10 car into second place in the GT3 class and got right behind the #21 Ferrari after the final safety car periods. But the decisive moment came as Alessio Rovera exited the pits in the Ferrari and squeezed the McLaren, earning a five-second time penalty that dropped him from first on the track in the GT3 class to fourth in the final classification. It gave the class win to the Garage 59 crew, which was joined on the podium by Heart of Racing Team’s #27 Aston Martin crew, as well as the drivers from The Bend Manthey’s #92 Porsche in second and third respectively. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms