The final hour of the LMGT3 battle witnessed heartbreak for the #10 Garage 59 McLaren squad but immense joy for the #69 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO in a dramatic end to a riveting first race of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship season at Imola.
Anthony McIntosh, Parker Thompson and Dan Harper took the chequered flag just 0.265 seconds ahead of the #33 TF Sport Corvette crew, in what proved to be the fifth closest WEC finish of all-time.
After a typically competitive LMGT3 contest between multiple manufacturers the class honours had appeared to boil down to a fight between the #69 BMW crew and the Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Antares Au, Tom Fleming and Marvin Kirchhoefer that had started on pole after Fleming’s sensational debut top-spot achievement on Saturday afternoon.
The Garage 59 squad chose to employ a creative strategy by putting in Kirchhoefer for a single stint in the middle of the six hour race before the German then took over from Fleming for the final stint. The strategy worked as the McLaren held a small lead over the Dan Harper driven BMW as the race looked set for a thrilling finale.
But Kirchhoefer’s McLaren suffered a sudden loss of power on the start/finish straight and it allowed Harper to surge through into the lead. But it was far from a cruise for Harper, who like teammate Parker Thompson, was taking part in his first ever WEC race.
With the Nicky Catsburg driven TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R posing as a major threat in the closing stages, Harper had to concentrate, although he was almost wrong-footed by after a small miscommunication by his team occurred and some confusion reigned on which was the final lap!
But in the end, Catsburg crossed the finishing line a mere 0.265 seconds shy in the car he shared with Jonny Edgar and Blake McDonald, who stood in for the injured Ben Keating.
“Unbelievable,” was Parker Thompson’s reaction to his debut win in the WEC.
“I can't thank Tony McIntosh enough for getting me over here. The World Endurance Championship is incredible. The fans here at Imola up are second to none and what I got to experience today is truly something that was out of a bucket list.
“It's not many drivers can say that they won the first FIA WEC race. Team WRT is just second to none. What they do behind the strategy, behind the preparation of the cars, it's just unbelievable. I couldn't be prouder to be a part of this.”
Team WRT’s win was its second in three seasons at Imola, a happy hunting ground for the Vincent Vosse led squad.
Completing the top three was the #92 The Bend Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of Richard Lietz, Yasser Shahin and Riccardo Pera, which recovered well after an early race spin by Shahin. The reigning champion Manthey team were typically on point with strategy as they opened up their defence of the LMGT3 title in solid style.
