Barwell’s Huracán GT3 EVO2 Conquers a 55-Car Spa Grid to Clinch British GT Win Number 33 for Lamborghini

Lamborghini’s Second British GT Victory of 2026 Comes at Spa’s Most Crowded Grid

Jarrod Waberski and Alex Martin, driving Barwell Motorsport‘s #78 Huracán GT3 EVO2, won the third round of the 2026 British GT Championship at Spa-Francorchamps on June 21. The victory was Lamborghini’s second of the season and 33rd in the series overall, but the finishing margin of 2.108 seconds barely hints at how difficult it was to earn.

Because the British GT’s only away round of the year coincided with SRO’s Speedweek, the championship shared its grid with FFSA GT4 and supporting categories. Fifty-five cars on the full 7-kilometer Spa layout. A typical British GT round fields roughly half that number. Navigating lapped traffic through Eau Rouge, Blanchimont, and the Bus Stop chicane while racing for position against McLarens and Aston Martins is a fundamentally different exercise than running in clean air, and it rewarded teams with the sharpest strategy and the most composed drivers.

Lamborghini says this result marks the brand’s third triumph at the classic Belgian venue and its first at Spa since 2021. For Waberski, it was a career first: his maiden British GT race win, punctuated by the race’s fastest lap. That combination of outright pace and race management, on a circuit that punishes mistakes more severely than almost any other on the calendar, tells a story about both the car and the crew behind it.

How Barwell Navigated the Chaos: Safety Cars, Pit Timing, and GT4 Traffic

The race unfolded in phases dictated by interruptions rather than green-flag rhythm. Multiple full course yellow periods and safety car interventions broke the action into segments, each one resetting gaps and forcing Barwell to recalculate its strategy on the fly.

Alex Martin’s opening stint set the tone. He moved into the lead at Eau Rouge on the rolling start and built a buffer during the first green-flag running, absorbing two FCY periods without surrendering position. The critical moment came when the second FCY and safety car coincided with the GT3 pit-stop window. Barwell executed the driver swap cleanly, handing the car to Waberski with the lead intact. That sounds straightforward on paper, but the timing of a mandatory pit stop relative to a safety car period can make or break a race. Stop too early, and you lose time under green. Stop too late, and the window closes. Barwell threaded the needle.

Waberski then faced the real test: managing a lead through a field littered with slower GT4 machinery on a circuit where closing speeds through Blanchimont can be enormous. Lamborghini says he extended his advantage to nearly four seconds before GT4 traffic compressed the gap repeatedly in the closing stages. That he posted the fastest lap while simultaneously picking through traffic speaks to a driver fully in command of the car’s limits.

The sister #63 entry of Hugo Cook and Rob Collard fought a different battle entirely. Collard lost both of his Q1 lap times to track limits infringements, dropping the car to 12th on the grid. Cook clawed back to third during his stint, only to lose the podium on the final lap when lapped traffic at the exit of Raidillon left him exposed to the chasing Aston Martin and McLaren. Fourth place and solid championship points, but a result that will sting given how close the podium was.

The Huracán GT3 EVO2: Why This Platform Still Wins at Spa

Spa-Francorchamps exposes weaknesses. Its high-speed sweeps demand aerodynamic stability and driver confidence, while its heavy braking zones into La Source and the Bus Stop chicane reward mechanical grip and tire management over a long stint. The Huracán GT3 EVO2 continues to perform well in both regimes, which is remarkable for a platform whose road-car basis debuted over a decade ago.

The naturally aspirated V10 at the heart of the GT3 EVO2 delivers its power in a linear, predictable fashion. In a race punctuated by safety car restarts, where drivers need immediate throttle response out of slow corners with cold-ish tires, that linearity becomes a genuine competitive advantage over turbocharged rivals that can spike torque unpredictably. Waberski’s own post-race comments, relayed through Lamborghini’s official account, emphasized how the car’s behavior gave him confidence to push through traffic rather than simply manage it.

“The car was so good today, I was able to just drive away from the others. I lost my voice because I was screaming so much in the car, but this victory is down to the team and to Alex.”

One detail worth noting for anyone who follows Lamborghini’s broader racing portfolio: the Huracán GT3 EVO2 also won the 24 Hours of Spa outright in 2025, with Grasser Racing Team’s #63 entry recovering from 19th on the grid to win by over eight seconds. That endurance victory and this sprint-format British GT win at the same circuit, separated by roughly a year, suggest the platform’s balance of aerodynamic efficiency and mechanical reliability is particularly well suited to Spa’s demands. Car and Driver tested the Super Trofeo Evo2 variant at its Lightning Lap event, recording competitive numbers that confirmed the platform’s raw pace translates across different contexts.

Barwell Motorsport and the Drivers: 30 Wins with Lamborghini

Lamborghini says this result is Barwell Motorsport’s 30th victory with the brand in British GT. That number deserves a moment of appreciation. Barwell is not a factory team with unlimited resources; it is a customer operation based in the English Midlands that buys its cars from Squadra Corse and runs them with a relatively small crew. Thirty wins across multiple generations of Huracán GT3 machinery represents a consistency of preparation and driver development that few customer teams in any GT3 program can match.

The Waberski-Martin pairing illustrates how Barwell builds its driver lineups. Martin, the more experienced of the two, handled the high-pressure opening stint and the critical rolling start. Waberski, still building his British GT career, delivered when it mattered most: fastest lap, clean traffic management, first career win. Barwell’s ability to pair a steady hand with a fast rising talent, then give both the strategic framework to succeed, mirrors how the best customer racing programs operate globally.

For Lamborghini, this partnership model is central to how Squadra Corse competes. The brand does not field a factory British GT entry. It relies entirely on customer teams like Barwell to carry its colors, which means the car needs to be competitive out of the box and the technical support pipeline needs to work. Thirty wins suggest both elements function well.

Championship Implications: A Title Fight Ignites

The Spa result launches Waberski and Martin into title contention, according to Lamborghini. The season’s first win at Oulton Park went to the sister #63 car of Cook and Collard, meaning Barwell now holds two of the season’s three victories across its two entries. That kind of team-level dominance, with different driver pairings winning different rounds, gives Barwell strategic flexibility for the remainder of the championship.

British GT awards points across overall and class categories, and the remaining rounds will determine whether Waberski and Martin can sustain their challenge against McLaren and Aston Martin crews who showed strong pace at Spa. Cook and Collard’s fourth-place finish, while disappointing given how close they came to the podium, still added valuable points to their own campaign. Lamborghini could realistically contest the championship with both entries, a luxury few customer teams enjoy.

One wrinkle worth watching: the Collard track-limits penalty in qualifying cost the #63 car dearly. In a championship decided by small margins, losing both Q1 lap times and starting 12th instead of potentially in the top six represents a significant points swing. Barwell will want to tighten that up for the remaining rounds.

The Bigger Picture: A Proven Winner and Its Successor Waiting in the Wings

Every win the Huracán GT3 EVO2 accumulates now adds pressure to its replacement. The Temerario GT3, set to succeed the Huracán as Lamborghini’s factory-backed GT3 effort, represents a fundamental architectural shift: where the Huracán uses a naturally aspirated V10, the Temerario GT3 will run a modified version of the road car’s twin-turbocharged V8, as required by GT3 regulations. Car and Driver reported that the Temerario GT3 is the first race car entirely designed and developed by Lamborghini at its Sant’Agata Bolognese facility, a significant departure from previous collaborations with external partners.

For customer teams like Barwell, the transition raises practical questions that Lamborghini has not yet fully answered publicly. How will the turbo V8’s power delivery compare to the V10’s linear throttle response in race conditions? Will the new car’s weight distribution suit circuits like Spa as naturally as the Huracán’s does? Road & Track explored how the Temerario GT3 aims to surpass the Huracán, but real-world competitive answers will only come once the car starts racing.

What the Spa result confirms, above all, is that Lamborghini’s customer GT3 program remains one of the strongest in the business. Ferrari’s 296 GT3 and McLaren’s 720S GT3 Evo both compete in British GT and other global series, and both represent newer-generation platforms. The Huracán GT3 EVO2 continues to beat them on race day, a testament to both the car’s fundamental engineering and the quality of support Squadra Corse provides its customer teams. When the Temerario GT3 eventually arrives on these grids, it will inherit a program that knows how to win. The bar it needs to clear is the one the Huracán keeps raising.

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