Barcelona Saturday Notebook

***Mathys Jaubert became the youngest-ever outright polesitter in the FIA World Endurance Championship on Saturday at Barcelona. At 21 years, 7 months and 15 days, surpassing the previous record set by Malthe Jakobsen earlier this year at Spa.

***However, the youngest class polesitter remains Thomas Laurent, who was just 19 years, 3 months and 11 days old when he scored LMP2 pole for the 2017 Nürburgring round alongside Oliver Jarvis, with two-driver averages determining grid positions.

***Shortly after scoring its first pole, Genesis Magma Racing announced that Daniel Juncadella has been officially retained for the 2027 season, with the news coming in a Genesis Motor Europe event held in downtown Barcelona on Saturday evening.

***Juncadella commented: “I’m already massively motivated for next season. My first season in Hypercar has been a valuable experience. As a rookie, even at 35, there were still a lot of things to learn, but I feel like I have got better and better through the season and so has the team. It’s great to receive this news at my home race because I have my family and friends around to enjoy the moment with me.”

***Genesis is expected to retain all six of its existing race drivers for the 2027 campaign.

***On the other hand, Genesis chief engineer Justin Taylor is rumored to be on his way out of the team. Taylor, who worked in the WEC for Ferrari and Cadillac prior to joining Genesis, has been linked to a switch to the NTT IndyCar Series with Chip Ganassi Racing, potentially as a replacement for Chris Simmons, who could join Arrow McLaren.

***Penske Racing President Jonathan Diuguid was spotted in the paddock on Saturday, amid intensifying speculation that the team could return to the WEC to fulfil Roger Penske’s long-held ambitions of victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. A privateer Cadillac effort in 2028 is believed to be one of several possibilities for the squad.

***JOTA Sport’s contract to run the factory Cadillac team in the WEC expires at the end of 2027, although team principal Dieter Gass expressed confidence of a renewal when asked about the matter by Sportscar365.

***Penske, meanwhile, is understood to have an exclusivity contract with Porsche that precludes it from running with other brands until the end of next year.

***Peugeot is believed to be in a minority of Hypercar manufacturers to have had any running on Michelin’s new wet tire, which could be used in Sunday’s race if forecasts predicting rain prove accurate. It’s understood it ran the tire during its most recent test at Silverstone, which featured mixed conditions.

***Charles Milesi said he was satisfied to qualify as high as fourth aboard the No. 35 Alpine A424 after a low-key Friday for the French manufacturer. “Coming here we were not expecting to be that great, and in FP1 and FP2 we were just focused on race pace and it looked like qualifying might be difficult,” he told Sportscar365. “But in FP3 we were surprisingly ok, and P4 on my side is better than I expected. It’s a great starting position for tomorrow, even if we know there is rain coming.”

***Milesi’s stablemate Victor Martins was only seventh in the sister No. 36 car after encountering yellow flags on his final push lap, caused by Mathieu Jaminet’s Genesis GMR-001 coming to a halt. Martins was on an improved lap at that point and was confident of matching his teammate’s pace without the yellows.

***Earlier in the day, single-seater convert Martins told reporters that he was relying on old on-board videos from his Formula 2 days to prepare for a potential wet race on Sunday. “I asked one of my ex-engineers from ART to send me some videos, and I was watching this at 10 p.m. last night,” he revealed. “It’s good to have this experience — I know the lines to take and how to approach corners here in the wet.”

***AF Corse’s Robert Kubica said his Hyperpole was compromised by an alarm on the steering wheel that forced him to abort his second push lap, as he ended up sixth on the grid as top Ferrari 499P. “Maybe I would have been one tenth faster, but more than P4 today was difficult to obtain,” the Polish driver told Sportscar365.

***Neither Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie made it through to Hyperpole as they both missed out by less than a tenth of a second, although No. 007 pilot Harry Tincknell reckoned he extracted the maximum from the car. The Briton had topped the FP2 leaderboard the previous evening but did not feel position that was representative.

***He told Sportscar365: “Maybe we overshowed some performance there — we found three or four tenths and the others have found like a second. If you said to me after FP2 yesterday, ‘what position do you think that lap would’ve been?’ I wouldn’t have said P1. The balance hasn’t been fantastic all weekend — we’ve struggled with rear stability.”

***Nevertheless, Tincknell is confident of a stronger showing in the race when rain is expected, describing the Valkyrie as “very quick in the wet.”

***McLaren Endurance Racing team principal James Barclay is open to the new MCL-HY appearing in the Asian Le Mans Series Hypercar class in the future. When quizzed by reporters at the Barcelona WEC round about Asian LMS prospects, he said: “Absolutely, anywhere we can take this car and race it in other markets where there’s a desire and there’s a viable business case to do it, absolutely. That would be amazing.”

***Thanks to Tom Fleming’s LMGT3 pole-winning effort, McLaren has become the second brand to reach five poles in the class, matching Aston Martin. It marks Fleming’s second pole of the year after the season opener at Imola, and makes the Briton the fifth driver in the class to achieve multiple poles.

***Garage 59 McLaren team boss Andrew Kirkaldy said that Fleming did a “really good job” to grab pole despite only having taken part in third practice, after being forced to miss FP1 and FP2 on Friday due to his GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS commitments at Portimao.

***Kirkaldy, who described Fleming’s performances across both championships this year as “exceptional”, said: “At the end of the day, if you want to be a professional driver, that’s what you’ve got to do. You don’t get many laps and you’ve got to deliver when the time comes.”

***While the No. 92 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of Riccardo Pera ended up as Fleming’s closest challenger in qualifying, the sister Porsche will only line up 12th after James Cottingham failed to make Hyperpole. The Briton bemoaned a “messy” session as several cars hanging back on prep laps ahead resulted in him not completing a clean first sector.

***In contrast, both TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs made it through to LMGT3 Hyperpole for the first time this season, with it being the first time that class points leader Jonny Edgar had taken part in a WEC qualifying session since the Fuji round last year.

***Edgar, who qualified fourth for Sunday’s 6 Hours of Barcelona, said he is not thinking about the possibility of wrapping up the LMGT3 title in Spain despite being 24 points ahead of his nearest rival, the No. 22 HOR Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo crew.

***He told Sportscar365: “We’ll just do the best we can in the race, we’re not thinking we need to beat this car or that car because there’s like ten cars to worry about. The goal is to go to Monza with the biggest lead we can — it’s a pretty outside chance we leave here being champions.”

***Heart of Racing Team boss Ian James reflected on qualifying 18th and last aboard the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo that sits second in the LMGT3 points. “I lost my first lap for track limits, then I came in for another set of tires, as I had an issue on the first set, and I didn’t get round to take the flyer by a few seconds,” James told Sportscar365. “But I don’t think we would have gone through. The success ballast around here is quite tough. If we can score a point, it would be a miracle.”

***Akkodis ASP is expected to take delivery of its first GR GT3 in the coming days as it prepares to switch from its current Lexus RC F GT3s to Toyota’s new GT3 challenger next season. However, the team has already been involved in testing together with KCMG, which is set to embark on a Nürburgring 24-centred program with the car, including a recent 36-hour endurance test at Motorland Aragon.

***As previously reported by Sportscar365, the GR is set for its first race outing next month in the SUPER GT season finale at Mobility Resort Motegi with Rookie Racing.

***The 6 Hours of Barcelona is set to begin Sunday at 12 noon local time (6 a.m. EST).

Stephen Lickorish contributed to this report