Written by Owen Bradley
Team WRT have taken a historic 1-2 finish at the Bathurst 12 Hours, as Kelvin Van Der Linde drove the No.32 WRT BMW across the line to take victory, just 10 seconds ahead of Raffaele Marciello, who completed a WRT 1-2 finish, bringing the No.46 WRT BMW over the line, as Valentino Rossi therefore also scores his first podium in Bathurst.
The race would be decided by fuel and pit stop strategy, with a long 4-hour green flag run at the end of the race also a major contributing factor in how this race was won and lost.
The No.77 Mercedes, No.183 Audi and No.888 Mercedes would go three-wide into the second corner on the opening lap, which set the scene of the race to come. The No.77 Mercedes of Gotz would maintain the lead of the race early on.
Starting from 12th position, the No.46 WRT BMW being driven by Marciello in the opening stint, managed to gain four places in the opening few laps, carving their way back onto the cars in the Pro category. Augusto Farfus would put the No.32 WRT BMW into second place early on, with the No.26 Ferrari of Chaz Mostert running in third, the No.888 Mercedes and No.183 Audi losing places at the beginning due to potential damage when they went side-by-side.
Chaz Mostert would set the pace early on, overtaking both the No.32 WRT BMW and the No.77 Mercedes early on, and taking an early lead of over 3 seconds within the first 30 minutes of the race.
At the end of the first hour, the Top 3 were: 1st No.26 Ferrari, 2nd No.77 Mercedes, 3rd No.32 WRT BMW
After the leading pack made their first pit stop of the race, the No.26 Ferrari and No.77 Mercedes would make contact, as the Mercedes was spun into the gravel and became beached at the final corner, bringing out the first Safety Car.
With most of the field already pitting, those who hadn't pitted, did so under the Safety Car and gained a huge advantage over the rest of the field. One car that benefitted hugely from this, was the No.46 BMW of Marciello, who quickly handed over to Valentino Rossi. BMW would find themselves with a 1-2 running order at the end of the first hour, with the No.32 BMW in front.
The No.183 Audi sunk further back into the pack due to the first Safety Car and pit stop phase, and quickly found itself in strife, making contact with the No.75 Mercedes and developing damage on the left side of the car, the Audi coming back into the pits and almost losing a full lap after just one hour in the race.
The second Safety Car would come just another 15 minutes later, as the No.25 McLaren GT4 car lost control and smashed into the barriers at the top of the mountain at Turn 10. The McLaren would also make contact with the No.44 Audi, both sustaining a large amount of damage, as debris sprayed across the circuit.
Many cars in the leading pack made their second stops of the race, as Valentino Rossi's No.46 BMW jumped the sister No.32 BMW in the pit stops, taking the net lead of the race, as the No.911 Porsche was due a pit stop.
Just 25 minutes later, and yet another Safety Car would be deployed due to a monstrous accident between the No.4 Mercedes and No.75 Mercedes. The No.4 Grove Mercedes went airborne and almost went over the fences at Turn 10 after hitting the No.75 Mercedes of Kenny Habul, the car being speared off in the opposite direction before smashing into the wall and almost rolling over. Stephen Grove appeared visually and audibly shaken by the accident, as the car rolled further down the mountain. Grove was taken to the medical centre, and is in good health.
This accident and subsequent Safety Car also meant that the No.911 Porsche took the overall race lead, with both BMW's just behind. Alessio Picariello in the No.911 Porsche would make a fantastic restart, and quickly gapped both of the BMW's behind.
The No.46 BMW would find more pace a bit deeper into the race, as Charles Weerts began his first stint, quickly closing the gap to Picariello in the leading No.911 Porsche, with the No.32 BMW not too far behind either.
The leading No.911 Porsche would make yet another stop, shortly before yet another Safety Car would be deployed due to debris on the circuit at Turn 9, after contact between the No.77 Mercedes and No.93 Ferrari who were scrapping over 4th place at the time. The No.46 BMW would gain the race lead once again due to pitting under the Safety Car, as Weerts swapped for Marciello.
BMW would lead Mercedes in the first half of the race, however it was by a short margin of just 1.5 seconds separating the Top 3, with the No.46 BMW still leading the way.
The No.888 Mercedes would find themselves in trouble, with a 10 second penalty for a pit stop breach a sign of things to come for the Mercedes team.
Just over 5 hours in, and the No.32 BMW of Sheldon Van Der Linde would take the overall lead, doing the overcut strategy and gaining an advantage over the No.46 BMW of Rossi, who proceeded to lose almost 10 seconds to Van Der Linde.
The BMW's appeared to be most useful on the straights, able to pull out a few car lengths and make it harder for any car to overtake them at the next heavy braking zone. The No.75 and No.77 Mercedes would both swap in an attempt to overtake Rossi in the No.46 BMW, as the buffer to the leading No.32 BMW opened up further.
The No.47 Mercedes would find itself beached in the gravel on the exit of the first corner, bringing out yet another Safety Car which impacted this race greatly.
The leading cars would once again come into the pits, as the No.77 Mercedes even received a brake change. Once the green flag was waved once again, the leading four cars would deal with heavy traffic, which meant that the gaps often fluctuated between half a second, and well over one second. This also meant that overtaking another car became incredibly difficult. The No.32 BMW was able to deal with traffic slightly better than Rossi in the No.46 BMW, and therefore opened up a small margin.
At the halfway mark, it appeared that the race would be between the two BMW's, followed by the No.75 and No.77 Mercedes', particularly with the No.77 Mercedes of Ojeda putting a lot of pressure on Rossi.
Another Safety Car would be deployed as The No.183 Audi found itself beached in the gravel at Turn 21, with no apparent damage, but the Audi simply failed to turn in. The leaders would pit once again.
The No.46 BMW of Rossi would however, overtake a GT4 car under the yellow flags, and therefore the No.46 BMW would be given a drive-through penalty.
Just as Rossi drove the No.46 into the pit lane, another Safety Car was deployed due to Maxime Martin in the No.888 Mercedes running wide at the penultimate corner, smashing into the barrier on the outside.
With yet another Safety Car, it did mean that the No.46 team only lost track position, and would rejoin the race in 6th place. The No.32 BMW would still lead the way, coming under pressure from the No.77 and No.75 Mercedes cars once the green flag was waved once again.
The No.75 Mercedes and No.46 BMW would both move onto an alternate strategy and attempt to save as much fuel as possible, attempting to skip a pit stop with around 4 hours remaining. Meanwhile, the Top 5 was - 1st No.32 BMW, 2nd No.77 Mercedes, 3rd No.26 Ferrari, 4th No.911 Porsche, 5th No.75 Mercedes, with the No.46 BMW just five seconds adrift.
The No.911 Porsche and No.26 Ferrari would engage in an almost one-hour long battle, the Ferrari of Brown closing down the No.911 Porsche of Picariello at the end of every straight. However, Picariello was able to make the Porsche wide enough to defend from the Ferrari, particularly at Turns 21 and 22.
The No.32 BMW would still lead the way, as the gaps fluctuated between 5-10 seconds throughout the leading six cars, who were all on the leading lap. The No.911 Porsche would run deep at the final corner with just 4 hours remaining, losing their position to the No.26 Ferrari, as both of them continued their battle before coming into the pits.
The No.911 Porsche would have a slightly longer stop, therefore costing them fourth place, as the No.75 Mercedes being driven at the time by Luca Stolz, jumped ahead of them in the pits. Both the No.911 Porsche and No.26 Ferrari that had been battling for the final spot on the podium, hadn't been saving much fuel at that point in the race and therefore with just over 2 hours remaining, were looking at being in danger of needing to do three pit stops, something which unfortunately for them, did in fact come to fruition.
Many cars were saving fuel and choosing where to push, which meant that overtaking action drew to a bit of a standstill, despite the field still running virtually bumper-to-bumper.
Going into the final hour, the running order was: 1st No.32 BMW, 2nd No.26 Ferrari, 3rd No.77 Mercedes, 4th No.75 Mercedes, 5th No.46 BMW and the No.911 Porsche in 6th place after losing quite a large chunk of time.
The No.26 Ferrari and No.77 Mercedes both needed to make an extra pit stop during the final hour and were coming under threat from the No.75 Mercedes and No.46 BMW, who were well within pit stop distance.
The No.26 Ferrari began attacking the leading No.32 BMW of Kelvin Van Der Linde, who defended the lead for a number of laps, using up their own precious fuel, as they were also under a slight threat of needing to come into the pits again themselves. WRT did give Kelvin the message to let the Ferrari by, an order which Van Der Linde ignored for a few laps, before being overtaken by Mostert in the No.26 Ferrari at Turn 21.
Both the No.26 Ferrari and the No.77 Mercedes would come into the pits during the final hour, as the No.46 BMW of Marciello got a phenomenal run onto the back of the No.75 Mercedes of Gounon. The No.46 BMW would be forced onto the grass as the pair went side-by-side heading into Turn 20, the flat-out right-hand kink before the tight Turns 21 and 22.
The No.32 BMW of Kelvin Van Der Linde would manage to save enough fuel, coming over the line with around a 10-second lead to the No.46 BMW of Raffaele Marciello, and the No.75 Mercedes of Gounon, which completed the podium.
WRT subsequently continue their victorious ways in 2025, so far taking a 100% win record at Endurance races that they have competed in this season.
This race also marks Valentino Rossi's first podium in Bathurst, a very popular result with fans. WRT executed a near-perfect strategy, and their lead rarely looked to be under any serious threat.
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