Malthe Jakobsen qualified first on Friday at Spa-Francorchamps in the Peugeot 9X8 number 94, the first pole position for the French manufacturer in the Hypercar era of the FIA World Endurance Championship. The Dane set 2m00.653 in Hyperpole, just 43 thousandths ahead of the Cadillac V-Series.R number 12 of Will Stevens, in a session where Toyota and Ferrari were eliminated before the final fight for the top grid spot.

The result completely reverses the order seen three weeks ago at Imola, where Toyota won the race with the TR010 Hybrid number 8 and Ferrari finished second with the 499P number 51. Neither of the two Toyotas competing at Spa advanced to Friday‘s Hyperpole session, and the Ferraris number 51 and 83 from AF Corse also failed to make the cut from the initial qualifying session. Peugeot, which had finished 12th at Imola with the number 94 of Duval, Jakobsen and Pourchaire, found a level of performance at the Belgian circuit that it had not shown at the opening round of the year.

Photo By Maxime Lantz

Free practice on Thursday and Friday had pointed to a weekend of scattered pace. Ferrari led the first session with Antonio Fuoco in the number 50, setting 2m02.955 and beating the Aston Martin Valkyrie of Heart of Racing. In the second practice, Alpine took control with Jules Gounon in the number 36, dropping to 2m01.816 and placing both A424 cars in the top two spots for the first time in a Hypercar session. Cadillac closed Friday morning practice with Stevens at the top of the times, setting 2m02.379 in a session where the top four were separated by just 104 thousandths.

Charles Milesi had been fastest in the qualifying session preceding Hyperpole in the Alpine number 35, setting 2m00.808. However, in Hyperpole, Jakobsen and Stevens were the only ones to dip below 2m01, leaving the rest of the grid at least six tenths behind. Stevens‘ attempt came in the final part of the session and very nearly displaced the Peugeot, but the Dane’s time held on.

Photo By Maxime Lantz

Peugeot debuted in Hypercar in 2022 with the original 9X8, a design without a rear wing that was eventually modified to incorporate a downforce-producing surface. The program achieved its first top three at Monza 2023 with a third place for the number 93, and repeated that position at the Circuit of the Americas in 2025 with the number 94. This is the first time the French lion has started from pole in the WEC‘s top class.

Photo By Maxime Lantz

Akkodis ASP places both Lexus cars into LMGT3 Hyperpole

Hadrien David qualified first in LMGT3 in the Lexus RC F number 78 of Akkodis ASP, setting 2m16.612 and beating the Aston Martin Vantage number 27 of Heart of Racing by 194 thousandths. David, champion of the Le Mans Cup in LMP3 last year, is contesting his first full WEC season and took pole on his debut at Spa.

Tom van Rompuy, David's teammate in the number 78, had qualified for Hyperpole by just 67 thousandths in the previous session. Petru Umbrarescu led that initial round in the team‘s other Lexus, the number 87, with a lap of 2m17.225 that allowed Akkodis ASP to put both its cars into the fight for pole. The number 78 had lost a wheel in Thursday’s second practice and stopped on track, but the team resolved the issue and returned competitive for qualifying.

Photo By Maxime Lantz

In LMGT3 practice, the order also varied. The Corvette Z06 of Racing Team Turkey by TF led the first session with Charlie Eastwood, the Aston Martin of Heart of Racing was first in the second session with Eduardo Barrichello, and the McLaren 720S of Garage 59 dominated the third session with Finn Gehrsitz just four thousandths faster than his teammate Tom Fleming.

The race starts on Saturday at 13:30 Belgian time.

TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps Qualification

Pos	#	team	car	drivers	Class	Gap	best lap
1	#94	Peugeot Totalenergies	Peugeot 9X8	Loïc Duval Malthe Jakobsen Théo Pourchaire	HYPERCAR	—	2:00.653
2	#12	Cadillac Hertz Team Jota	Cadillac V-Series.R	Will Stevens Norman Nato Louis Delétraz	HYPERCAR	0.043	2:00.696
3	#35	Alpine Endurance Team	Alpine A424	António Félix Da Costa Charles Milesi Ferdinand Habsburg	HYPERCAR	0.078	2:00.731
4	#36	Alpine Endurance Team	Alpine A424	Frédéric Makowiecki Jules Gounon Victor Martins	HYPERCAR	0.185	2:00.838
5	#38	Cadillac Hertz Team Jota	Cadillac V-Series.R	Earl Bamber Sébastien Bourdais Jack Aitken	HYPERCAR	0.287	2:00.940
6	#009	Aston Martin Thor Team	Aston Martin Valkyrie	Alex Riberas Marco Sørensen	HYPERCAR	0.360	2:01.013
7	#007	Aston Martin Thor Team	Aston Martin Valkyrie	Harry Tincknell Tom Gamble	HYPERCAR	0.399	2:01.052
8	#50	Ferrari AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	Antonio Fuoco Miguel Molina Nicklas Nielsen	HYPERCAR	0.464	2:01.117
9	#93	Peugeot Totalenergies	Peugeot 9X8	Paul Di Resta Stoffel Vandoorne Nick Cassidy	HYPERCAR	0.545	2:01.198
10	#15	BMW M Team WRT	BMW M Hybrid V8	Kevin Magnussen Raffaele Marciello Dries Vanthoor	HYPERCAR	0.664	2:01.317
11	#20	BMW M Team WRT	BMW M Hybrid V8	Robin Frijns René Rast Sheldon Van Der Linde	HYPERCAR	0.920	2:01.573
12	#7	Toyota Racing	Toyota TR010 Hybrid	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Nyck De Vries	HYPERCAR	0.939	2:01.592
13	#83	AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	Yifei Ye Robert Kubica Philip Hanson	HYPERCAR	1.124	2:01.777
14	#19	Genesis Magma Racing	Genesis GMR-001-Hypercar	Mathieu Jaminet Paul-Loup Chatin Daniel Juncadella	HYPERCAR	1.171	2:01.824
15	#51	Ferrari AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Antonio Giovinazzi	HYPERCAR	1.195	2:01.848
16	#8	Toyota Racing	Toyota TR010 Hybrid	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa	HYPERCAR	1.511	2:02.164
17	#17	Genesis Magma Racing	Genesis GMR-001-Hypercar	André Lotterer Luis Felipe Derani Mathys Jaubert	HYPERCAR	2.652	2:03.305
18	#78	Akkodis ASP Team	Lexus RC F LMGT3	Tom Van Rompuy Hadrien David Esteban Masson	LMGT3	15.959	2:16.612
19	#27	Heart of Racing Team	Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3	Ian James Zacharie Robichon Mattia Drudi	LMGT3	16.153	2:16.806
20	#77	Proton Competition	Ford Mustang LMGT3	Eric Powell Ben Tuck Sebastian Priaulx	LMGT3	16.171	2:16.824
21	#87	Akkodis ASP Team	Lexus RC F LMGT3	Petru Umbrärescu Clemens Schmid José María López	LMGT3	16.315	2:16.968
22	#88	Proton Competition	Ford Mustang LMGT3	Stefano Gattuso Giammarco Levorato Logan Sargeant	LMGT3	16.384	2:17.037
23	#21	Vista AF Corse	Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Evo	François Hériau Simon Mann Alessio Rovera	LMGT3	16.610	2:17.263
24	#32	Team WRT	BMW M4 LMGT3 Evo	Darren Leung Sean Gelael Augusto Farfus	LMGT3	16.703	2:17.356
25	#61	Iron Lynx	Mercedes-AMG LMGT3	Martin Berry Rui Andrade Maxime Martin	LMGT3	16.879	2:17.532
26	#91	Manthey DK Engineering	Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3	James Cottingham Timur Boguslavskiy Ayhancan Güven	LMGT3	17.413	2:18.066
27	#34	Racing Team Turkey by TF	Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R	Peter Dempsey Salih Yoluç Charlie Eastwood	LMGT3	17.680	2:18.333
28	#58	Garage 59	McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo	Alexander West Finn Gehrsitz Benjamin Goethe	LMGT3	18.257	2:18.910
29	#92	The Bend Manthey	Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3	Yasser Shahin Riccardo Pera Richard Lietz	LMGT3	18.333	2:18.986
30	#23	Heart of Racing Team	Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3	Gray Newell Eduardo Barrichello Jonny Adam	LMGT3	18.449	2:19.102
31	#33	TF Sport	Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R	Blake Mcdonald Jonny Edgar Nicky Catsburg	LMGT3	18.517	2:19.170
32	#10	Garage 59	McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo	Antares Au Thomas Fleming Marvin Kirchhöfer	LMGT3	18.540	2:19.193
33	#79	Iron Lynx	Mercedes-AMG LMGT3	Johannes Zelger Matteo Cressoni Lin Hodenius	LMGT3	19.037	2:19.690
34	#69	Team WRT	BMW M4 LMGT3 Evo	Anthony Mcintosh Parker Thompson Daniel Harper	LMGT3	19.094	2:19.747
35	#54	Vista AF Corse	Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Evo	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Davide Rigon	LMGT3	19.128	2:19.781