Henri Dubois · Endurance Correspondent
At his home race, the 6 Hours of Barcelona, Daniel Juncadella took the lead in the Genesis GMR-001 at Turn 1, before a mistake at Turn 5 turned a dream start into a long comeback drive.
Daniel Juncadella took the Hypercar lead on the opening lap of the WEC’s 6 Hours of Barcelona, only to slide off moments later at the notorious Turn 5 and drop to 16th. The Catalan, who shares the No. 19 Genesis GMR-001 with Mathieu Jaminet and Paul-Loup Chatin, was unusually candid and self-critical after the race about a mistake that turned his home race with Genesis Magma Racing from a potential top result into a grind of damage limitation.
A perfect start, over within seconds
Saturday in Barcelona could hardly have gone better for Genesis Magma Racing. Young driver Mathys Jaubert put the sister No. 17 car on the brand’s first-ever Hypercar pole, while Juncadella lined up third in the No. 19. With damp, slippery conditions on Sunday, expectations were high.
Juncadella made a brilliant start. Under braking for Turn 1 he got past both Sébastien Buemi’s Toyota and his own teammate André Lotterer to lead the entire field before the first lap was complete. Moments later, braking for Turn 5, a corner notorious for its lack of grip in the wet, he lost control of the car and slid off the track. Within seconds, the lead had turned into 16th place, ahead only of the No. 35 Alpine that had been spun at the start.
Candid words instead of excuses
After the race, Juncadella made no attempt to hide his disappointment and found blunt words for his own misjudgment. “F***ed that one up. Sorry to the team,” he posted on social media straight after the race.
Speaking to Sportscar365, he made it clear that this was no stroke of bad luck but a clear error of judgment: “I was a bit over-confident into Turn 5, which I know is one of the most slippery corners in the wet, and misjudged that one and paid a big price for it,” Juncadella said. He added: “That was mentally very disappointing and I carried that into all my stint.” That kind of self-criticism, without pointing to the weather, the equipment or track conditions as an excuse, should build trust within the team, even if it did not win back the ground lost on Sunday.
Eleventh instead of first: how Barcelona ended
That the deficit after the Turn 5 off did not grow even larger was down to the whole driver trio. In the wet, Juncadella fought his way back up to eighth, but once the track dried out, the GMR-001 lacked pace. Juncadella, Jaminet and Chatin ultimately got no higher than 11th, exactly one place outside the points and a lap down on the winning Toyota. A few smaller setbacks over the course of the race also kept the comeback from producing points. That leaves the No. 19 still waiting for its first points of the season.
For Genesis, missing out on a top result at its driver’s home race is likely to weigh heavily, especially since the sister car’s pole on Saturday had shown what the package was capable of. Neither car could convert that on Sunday, though: the No. 17 also finished just 16th from pole, three laps down.
There was still a personal bright spot for Juncadella that weekend: Genesis Magma Racing officially confirmed him as its first driver for the 2027 WEC season, underlining its long-term faith in the veteran as a pillar of the Hypercar program. How the team processes this Barcelona setback, and whether Saturday’s pace can more often be turned into a complete race weekend, will only become clear from the season finale at Monza onward.
