WEC 6 Hours of Spa: Malthe Jakobsen puts Peugeot on pole as Hadrien David tops LMGT3 for Lexus

The 22-year-old Dane recovered from a high speed spin at Raidillon during the first part of qualifying to put the #94 Team Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 on pole for Saturday’s TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps.

Jakobsen, sharing the car with Théo Pourchaire and Loïc Duval, had been forced back to the pits for fresh tyres after the spin, but returned to go second in qualifying before topping the 10 minute Hyperpole shootout.

“It definitely wasn’t the ideal start to the session!” Jakobsen joked. “A bump caught me out and unfortunately I had a spin; luckily, I didn’t hit anything, but at times like that, your heart stops for a moment and then I immediately felt some vibrations.

"We decided to box for new tyres, and luckily, we still had time to do 2 ‘build’ laps and a proper ‘push’ lap, then the break between qualifying and Hyperpole was good to take a deep breath and get the focus back.

“It’s the best feeling to drive around this track on low fuel and new tyres, and I’m very happy for the team. This is a great boost for everybody in terms of motivation to keep working hard. It really shows that even though we’ve had a challenging past couple of years, everything is possible and you should never, ever give up," added Jakobsen.

The result was Peugeot’s first pole in any international endurance racing series for 15 years and its first in world championship competition since 1992.

Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA’s Will Stevens qualified second in the #12 V Series R, just 0.043s behind Jakobsen, after setting the pace in FP3 earlier in the day.

Alpine locked out the second row, with Charles Milesi and Jules Gounon placing the two A424 Hypercars third and fourth after the French team had shown strong pace throughout practice and qualifying.

Jack Aitken impressed on his FIA WEC debut by taking fifth in the second Cadillac, ahead of both Aston Martin Valkyries.

Ferrari struggled to match the leading pace, with Antonio Fuoco the only 499P driver to reach Hyperpole. He qualified eighth in the #50 Ferrari, while Robert Kubica was 13th in the #83 and Antonio Giovinazzi 15th in the #51.

Toyota also missed the top 10 shootout, with Kamui Kobayashi 12th in the #7 GR010 Hybrid and Brendon Hartley only 16th in the Imola winning #8 car.

In LMGT3, Hadrien David gave Akkodis ASP Team pole position with a commanding lap in the #78 Lexus RC F.

The Frenchman, a series rookie and reigning Michelin Le Mans Cup LMP3 champion, continued his strong start to the season after qualifying on the front row at Imola.

The #78 Lexus had only just reached Hyperpole after Tom Van Rompuy advanced from the first qualifying phase by 0.067s, but David made the opportunity count.

“I love Spa!” David said. “I had pole here in Formula 4, the Formula Regional European Championship, LMP3 last year and now LMGT3. I’m lucky to be part of Akkodis, who gave me a great car and I knew we were going to be quite strong this weekend. This is a team effort, and I have great engineers and team-mates, and with Tom getting us into Hyperpole, that gave me a shot!”

Zacharie Robichon put the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin second, just under 0.2s off pole, with Ben Tuck third for Proton Competition in the #77 Ford Mustang.

Clemens Schmid completed a strong qualifying for Lexus by taking fourth in the sister Akkodis entry after traffic compromised his best lap.

Several major contenders failed to reach Hyperpole, including all 3 Imola podium finishers, the #69 Team WRT BMW, #33 TF Sport Corvette and #92 The Bend Manthey Porsche.

The TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps, round 2 of the 2026 FIA WEC season, starts at 14:00 CEST on Saturday.