6 Hours of Monza: Race TOYOTA RACING completes world title double
12-11-2026 15:05 -
TOYOTA RACING brought the curtain down on a spectacular FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season by reclaiming the drivers’ title in the eighth and final round of 2026, the 6 Hours of Monza.
Four wins this season – including the Le Mans 24 Hours and its home race at Fuji Speedway – helped the team secure the manufacturers’ World Championship last month at the penultimate round in Barcelona in its first year competing as TOYOTA RACING.
Going into the final round in Italy, the drivers’ title fight was a contest between the team’s two car crews. The 6 Hours of Monza saw Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa secure the crown in their #8 TR010 HYBRID, finishing in 11th place.
After three wins this season, the #8 crew won their third world title together. For Sébastien and Brendon, this season’s triumph is their fifth World Championship crown, while Ryō takes his third title.
Le Mans winners Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries needed to overcome a 17-point deficit to win the title in their #7 TR010 HYBRID. A difficult competitive situation for both cars at Monza made their task even harder and they finished 12th.
TOYOTA RACING therefore ends the first season of competition for its TR010 HYBRID with four wins and seven podiums to its name. The World Championship double means the team has now won eight manufacturers’ titles and seven drivers’ crowns since its return to WEC in 2012.
The race at Monza proved to be a challenging finale to a highly successful season. The only running in dry conditions this weekend came in qualifying, providing relatively little data on which to base race set-ups and strategies. The #8 started in 14th, while the #7 lined up 17th.
In front of a 75,181-strong weekend crowd, Mike had the honour of taking the start in his last race before retirement after 12 seasons, two titles and 20 wins with the team since joining in 2014.
Both cars pushed hard to move into the points and gained positions. The race featured four safety car periods but was incident-free for the TR010 HYBRIDs until the final 90 minutes. The #7 suffered bodywork damage in contact with a Ford LMGT3 at the first chicane. Kamui was then hit from behind by the #17 Genesis a few laps later at the same corner.
But both cars avoided further drama and took the chequered flag as the sun set over the Temple of Speed to bring a successful 2026 season to a close.
