Mercedes takes dramatic Bathurst 12 Hour win

Maxime Martin, Maro Engel and Mikael Grenier have gained a dramatic – and dramatically shortened – Bathurst 12 Hour race.

Their Workforce GMR entry began from twenty ninth on the grid after a collection of issues throughout follow and qualifying, however the trio confirmed wonderful tempo all through the race and when Martin was introduced with the lead late within the race, he grabbed the chance and didn’t put a wheel flawed, successful by 1.0386s.

The race for the win was arrange within the ultimate hour, when the 2 Mercedes-AMGs of Chaz Mostert (STM) and Jayden Ojeda (Tigani) clashed on the exit of Flip 2. Each have been out, and underneath security automobile the leaders selected to pit over consecutive laps.

However the WRT BMW of Kelvin van der Linde didn’t, taking the lead about one metre forward of the 75 Specific Racing Mercedes-AMG of Jules Gounon. When the inexperienced flag flew the leaders clashed on the very first nook, dropping floor and letting Martin by means of to the lead, giving all three drivers their first win down underneath.

“Beginning the weekend I don’t assume we anticipated to win. It was simply endurance,” mentioned Martin after the race.

“We knew we’d be within the sport however we by no means anticipated that!” Grenier added. “We had one thing with the engine in qualifying however we had nice technique within the race.”

After so many makes an attempt, Engel commented: “I’ve waited a very long time for this and it’s each bit as particular as I assumed it might be! Not as we deliberate, however in the long run, we gained the race.”

Second place went to Porsche, however presumably not the one which many observers may need fancied pre-race. From even additional again on the grid in thirtieth, Excessive Class Racing acquired some strong driving from Bronze driver Kerong Li, and co-drivers Dorian Boccolacci and Anders Fjordbach ran simply behind the main group, taking monitor place and holding it to the flag.

There was an epic battle for the ultimate podium place, with 2025 winners WRT rising from the battle, Augusto Farfus, Raffaele Marciello and Valentino Rossi taking third, forward of the Jamec Audi R8 GT3 Evo of former Supercars champion Will Brown/Christopher Haase/Brad Schumacher.

Valentino Rossi, Workforce WRT

Picture by: Daniel Kalisz / Getty Photos

It was an awesome comeback from the WRT workforce, because the M4 was tagged by one other automobile, damaging its left-front on the first nook of the race; it broke later within the race, prompting a black flag.

In fifth place was the second-best of the BMWs, the Workforce KRC M4 GT3 of Max Hesse, Maxime Oosten and Bronze driver Cunfan Ruan forward of the Absolute Racing Porsche of Matt Campbell/Bastian Buus/Alessio Picariello. Gounon and co-drivers Luca Stolz and Kenny Habul took seventh from Ricardo Feller/Klaus Bachler/Lauren Heinrich within the Earl Bamber Motorsport Porsche.

The race was red-flagged for nearly 56 minutes after Johannes Zelger, who had simply been waved previous the security automobile, hit the wall at MacPhillamy Park, after which the Tsunami RT Porsche spun at Forrests Elbow after a faucet from Kai Allen. Ralf Aron hit him at full pace within the race-leading Craft Bamboo Mercedes-AMG and the monitor was nearly utterly blocked, forcing the officers to interrupt the race.

The polesitting Mercedes-AMG was in rivalry till the seventh hour, when Thomas Randle made contact with one other automobile and struck a wall, dropping three laps. Mostert and Cam Waters hauled the automobile again into rivalry till the conflict with Ojeda.

Not lengthy afterwards Christopher Mies emerged shaken however unharmed after his HRT Racing Ford Mustang had a fully-grown kangaroo come by means of its windscreen at 250km/h, wrecking the automobile and showering its cabin – and Mies – with mashed marsupial. Mies was unharmed however needed to take two showers to take away the stays of the animal.

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After a gradual build-up to the race, one other contender, the Johor Motor Racing Chevrolet Corvette of Earl Bamber/Nicky Catsburg/Alexander Sims, climbed to the lead mid-race. Within the tenth hour Bamber hit the wall at The Dipper when the suspension broke, and retired on the spot.

Track action at sunset

Monitor motion at sundown

Picture by: Daniel Kalisz / Getty Photos

The Professional Am Class winner was the GMR Mercedes-AMG of Dylan O’Keeffe, Brett Hobson and Garth Walden, in thirteenth outright.

The 111 Racing IRC GT of Darren Currie/Axle Donaldson/Daniel Studdert took Invitational Class honours (and twenty fifth outright), whereas the only GT4 starter, the Steven Aghakhani/Adrian Kunzle/Kevin Madsen Methodology Motorsport McLaren, took class honours (twenty sixth outright).

The Silver Class winner was the Volante Rosso McLaren of Marcos Flack/Ryan Grey/Bayley Corridor/Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer, regardless of a spin by Grey. They completed thirty third.

The following spherical of the Intercontinental GT Problem is the Nurburgring 24 Hours on 14-17 Could.

Pictures from Bathurst 12 Hour

#2 Johor Motorsports Racing JMR Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R: Alexander Sims, Nicky Catsburg, Earl Bamber