Tom Fleming has secured LMGT3 pole position for the FIA World Endurance Championship's 6 Hours of Barcelona in Garage 59's No. 10 McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo. The British driver set a 1:40.933 lap in Saturday's Hyperpole session, the only competitor to break the 1m41s barrier.
Riccardo Pera was his closest challenger in the No. 92 The Bend Manthey Porsche 911 LMGT3 R Evo, ending the session just 0.122 seconds adrift. Simon Mann put the No. 21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Evo third, 0.465 seconds off the McLaren's benchmark. It was a tight qualifying contest, although the result says nothing definitive about race pace over six hours.
The pole is Fleming's second of the 2026 WEC season. His first came at Imola, where Garage 59 made an immediate impression in its first championship appearance as McLaren's LMGT3 operator. The No. 10 crew looked capable of winning that race before a late mechanical problem forced it to retire from the lead. Fleming, Antares Au and Marvin Kirchhöfer subsequently delivered a class victory at Spa-Francorchamps in May.
Those same three drivers share the No. 10 car this weekend. Fleming's preparation has been unusually compressed: according to RACER, he has been moving between Barcelona and Portugal while also competing in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup finale. After qualifying, he credited Au, Kirchhöfer and the Garage 59 team for establishing a setup that allowed him to get up to speed despite missing earlier practice running.
Garage 59's result also illustrates the continuing competitiveness of the McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo. The manufacturer has a separate programme preparing for an entry into the WEC's top-level Hypercar category in 2027, but its established GT car remains a contender in the tightly regulated LMGT3 field.
Barcelona is the penultimate round of the 2026 championship. Fleming and his teammates will start Sunday's race at the front of the class, with the Porsche and Ferrari crews close enough in qualifying to make the outcome far from settled. The six-hour race is scheduled for 18 October.