WRT BMW masters the Mountain in Bathurst 12 Hour epic

TEAM WRT BMW has broken through to win an absorbing 2025 Meguiar's Bathurst 12 Hour, with the Belgian squad claiming an unprecedented one-two finish.

The winning car of Kelvin van der Linde, brother Sheldon van der Linde and Augusto Farfus completed 306 laps en route to victory, which was BMW's first in the 12 Hour's GT3 era, and WRT's first at the Mountain since 2018.

The #32 M4 GT3 dominated the 2025 Intercontinental GT Challenge season-opener in a dramatic and incident-packed race, which featured seven Safety Car interventions.

The victory also came three weeks after WRT, in collaboration with Al Manar Racing, won the 24H Dubai, securing victory on debut for the new-for-2025 BMW M4 GT3 EVO.

The race boiled down to the final hour amid question marks over fuel strategy, with Arise Racing Ferrari, Absolute Racing Porsche and pole-sitters Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG all stopping in the final half hour. It revealed a WRT quinella, Kelvin van der Linde finishing 10.2 seconds ahead of Raffaele Marciello, who combined to second with Valentino Rossi and Charles Weerts.

Through the late stops, the powerhouse #75 75 Energy Mercedes-AMG combination of Jules Gounon/Luca Stolz/Kenny Habul secured a remarkable fourth consecutive podium, adding to wins in 2022 and 2023, and second in 2024.

"Tastes sweet after that one honestly, that was the hardest two hours of my life," said Kelvin van der Linde, who took the chequered flag.

"The whole race we were fuel-saving, which is sometimes harder than pushing flat out, you know you can't really do the pace that guys behind are doing. Especially when Chaz was coming at the end there, the guys were giving me numbers to hit and I knew it was going to be tight, but I'm so proud of everyone.

"I'm first of all very proud to be here with this guy [brother Sheldon], and second of all very proud to be here with Augusto as a guy I watched in touring cars on the TV as a young kid at home, and now to win the race together, I'm very proud, so thank you both boys."

Through an enthralling first 10 hours, Daniel Serra (#26 Ferrari) and Ayhancan Guven (#911 Porsche) stopped on lap 265, handing over to Mostert and two-time winner Matt Campbell. Campbell battled to fire up and lost time in the lane to Mostert, who set about charging home with an eye on another stop.

Auer stopped and rejoined on lap 268; at the time, the #32 was 11 seconds up the road. Mostert caught and passed Auer with an ambitious move at The Chase, and with Sheldon handing over to older brother Kelvin on lap 273, the race was on.

Stolz (#75 Mercedes-AMG) and Marciello (#46 BMW) came in on lap 275, the former giving the 75 Energy entry to three-time winner Gounon.

As the race ticked into the final hour, van der Linde led a charging Mostert by six seconds, with Auer 13.6s from the lead, Gounon 18.6s, Marciello 20.9s and Campbell 25.6s.

As Mostert closed on van der Linde, Gounon and Marciello ranged up on the fuel-saving Auer. Mostert forced van der Linde to defend on lap 286 at Forrests Elbow, and they ran line astern into Murray's Corner. On the following lap, Mostert bombed down the inside at The Chase, and took the lead.

Mostert quickly opened up a 3.5s lead, which blew out to six seconds before he lost time clearing the #50 KTM. Auer was 13.8s behind van der Linde on lap 290, with Gounon and Marciello remaining locked onto the #77.

Arise Racing pulled the pin and brought Mostert in with 23 minutes remaining, handing the lead back to the #32. As Mostert got up to speed, attention turned to the battle for third, with Marciello disposing of Gounon in a hair-raising run down Conrod Straight behind Auer.

Absolute Racing pulled Campbell in from fifth, handing the position to Mostert. Into the final 15 minutes, the #32 led the #77 by 11.7s, with Marciello and Gounon just behind. With nothing to lose, Mostert powered in the fastest lap of the race, a 2:02.2740s on lap 299.

Craft-Bamboo dragged Auer in with six minutes remaining, revealing Marciello in a WRT one-two. The #75, #26, #77 and #911 rounded out the top six, with the Bronze class #27 Heart of Racing by SPS of Ross Gunn/Zacharie Robichon/Ian James seventh.

The #36 Arise Racing Ferrari of Jaxon Evans/Alessio Rovera/Elliott Schutte/Brad Schumacher claimed Pro-Am honours in eighth, with the #93 Wall Racing Lamborghini of Tony D'Alberto/Brendon Leitch/Grant Denyer/Adrian Deitz scoring the Silver win in ninth.

GT4 honours went to the #24 Method Motorsport McLaren of Jake Santalucia/Anthony Levitt/Josh Buchan, while the sole Invitational, the #50 KTM, came home 15th overall.