Written by Aaron Carroll, Edited By Vyas Ponnuri
BMW with Team WRT and Almanar Racing won the 2025 Dubai 24H, a race plagued by 21 code 60’s. Max Hesse, Dan Harper, Darren Leung, Ben Tuck and Al Faisal Al Zubair led much of the final few hours, coming home to take a spectacular win in the BMW M4 GT3 Evo’s maiden race.
Even before the green flag dropped in Dubai, there was action and drama on the track. In Q1, the No. 99 Attempto racing Audi had a massive crash, destroying most of the rear end of the car, forcing the team to withdraw from the race before they even got to the grid.
At the other end, it was a dominating performance from the No. 92 Porsche run by Pure Rxcing, who took pole position on the best average lap time after three sessions, leading in all three.
However, the qualifying high would be dampened by a balance of performance (BoP) change, where the Porsche 992 GT3R would receive an extra 20 kilograms ballast after the warm-up.
With this extra weight, Porsche’s competitors behind were eager to take the lead from them, and that is exactly what happened.
As the flag dropped, the second place No. 16 Mercedes hung it round the outside of the No. 92 at turn one, as they battled side by side for multiple corners before the Mercedes just edged ahead to lead the opening lap of the twice round-the-clock spectacle.
Then in the opening stint Alexey Nesov in the Pure Rxcing machine seemed to have a lack of pace, dropping behind the No. 777 BMW WRT and the No. 991 Paradine Competition.
This pair of new BMW M4 GT3 Evo’s — that BMW announced at the end of last May, would eventually get past the No. 16 Mercedes to have a 1-2 early on in the race, heading into the end of the first stint.
While this was happening up the front of the pack, the No. 795 Ginetta suffered a cockpit fire in the GTX class, and had to return to the pits as the driver pulled the fire extinguisher.
Driver Ethan Gialdini suffered minor burns and spectacularly the car returned to the race after a short cleanup.
Soon after this, we would see the first big crash of the race. The No. 990 JBR Porsche 992 cup entry would have a small moment of oversteer coming out of the final corner, tagging the No. 21 Audi GT3 and careening into the barriers, causing the first code 60 (restricting speeds to 60 km/h, similar to a full course yellow) of the event.
The green flags would wave again around 25 minutes later, but not for long. The No. 81 Ferrari was slow coming off the code 60, and the No. 5 Mercedes behind caught the Ferrari too quickly.
The resulting sequence of events saw the Mercedes lose the car on cold tyres, trying to avoid the rear of the 296 GT3. The Mercedes would spin off into the barriers causing the race's second code 60.
Through pitstops and the code 60’s, the No. 16 would retake the lead from the No. 24 Porsche.
As the leaders strategies began to form, the No. 797 Rossa LM GT driven by former Haas F1 driver Nikita Mazepin stopped at the entrance of the pits, with what Mazepin termed a gearbox issue.
The car was pushed back to the garage without need for interruption, outside a short pit lane closure.
The No. 88 Ferrari began to make gains on the leading Mercedes, and eventually caught up to the No. 16 and lunged down the inside at the turn 10 hairpin. The No. 16 quickly dropped back from the new race leader and was soon under pressure from the No. 24 Dinamic GT Porsche.
There would be a short code 60 for some debris at turn 10, with just over 21 and a half hours to go. As different strategies began to play out for the leaders, the No. 88 would have a spin giving the lead to the No. 24 with just over 20 hours left.
The No. 92 was also gaining on the lead pair in third place as the Porsche cars came back to life as the temperatures began to drop at around 5pm local time.
There would be another short code 60 as the No. 56 Ferrari spun, but got going again. Pit stop cycles put the No. 777 BMW in the lead, with the sister No. 991 behind, with the pair of Porsches chasing, No. 92 in third, No. 24 in fourth.
Meanwhile, the No. 914 Porsche cup car would suffer a massive water leak, leaving the garage covered in puddles of water from the radiators.
A coincidence In the 992 cup class saw the No. 992 Porsche stop on track, once again getting going without the need for another race interruption. Similarly the Toyota Supra GT4 would spin, without any interruptions.
Both the No. 974 cup car and the No. 414 Porsche Cayman GT4 would run out of fuel and have to be pushed down the pitlane to the refuelling station.
All the while the leaders, No. 777, No. 991, No. 24 and No. 92 swapped the lead through pit stops, as darkness descended upon the Dubai Autodrome.
Just at the end of the first quarter of the race, Dan Harper in the No. 777 and Loek Hartog in the No. 24 would have a short battle, the gap consistently under half a second. Harper eventually was let through as Hartog pulled the Dinamic Porsche into the pits.
Soon there would be another code 60 for the No. 414 Porsche GT4, which had a brake failure going down the straight into the turn 10 hairpin.
Thankfully the driver was okay after the high-speed head-on collision with the barriers and a visit to the medical centre.
The No. 992 cup car would also have a scare going into the run-off at the same corner, but avoiding the barriers and rejoining the race mostly unscathed.
A short lull followed before a burst of fireworks at 8pm local time signalled 17 hours to go for the end. Through this period the four lead cars still swapped positions through pit stops and different strategies.
The No. 470 BMW GT4 soon caught fire and was forced to pull to the side of the track. The marshalls quickly got to the scene of the fire and put the blaze out.
The ensuing code 60 was quite lengthy, breaking the race up after the longest green flag period so far.
The lead would continue to change, with a 10-second penalty for the No. 777 and a 20-second penalty for No. 92, both for pitstop infringements. These penalties promoted the No. 991 into the lead of a BMW 1-2, the No. 777 following suit.
The No. 21 Haas RT Audi would be spun around by the sister No. 69 Audi, but the No. 21 would get going again quickly. Soon after there would be a code 60 for the TCX leader, No. 127 Porsche hitting the wall and being forced into the pits with damage.
After another quiet period, the No. 978 Porsche cup car stopped on the start/finish straight causing a code 60, before the car eventually got itself moving again.
But it would only get as far as turn 14 before suspected gearbox issues struck again, and would have to be towed back to the pits.
Some cars took this period to change brakes and complete a full service in the pits. At this point the No. 33 Optimum McLaren joined the battle for the podium.
The sole McLaren entry in the race had quietly climbed its way up the field, on its way into contention for the podium places.
The No. 16 Mercedes has had a tangle with the Supra GT4 and both cars ended up backwards, but soon got back running without need for interruption.
This was near the halfway through the race, with strategies taking place and everyone behaving themselves with the goal to survive the night.
The 11th code 60 was brought out for the No. 914 hitting the wall at turn 3. The car was towed back to the pits with visible front suspension damage, with sizable repairs to be done if they wanted to finish the race.
Race control kept the code 60 out due to water seeping onto the track from a service road at turn 12. We went back to green, with former DTM champion Thomas Preining leading in the No. 92 Porsche from No. 24 and No. 777.
With over 10 hours to go, the Vortex GTX car would suffer a rear puncture, but was able to limp back to the pits and get a fresh set of tyres.
Into the wee hours of Sunday, the No. 40 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin would get tagged by the No. 710 Lamborghini, resulting in steering damage for the former and costing them 18 laps to the leaders, as both cars returned to the pits for repairs.
The No. 69 Audi also came to a halt, causing a shuffle of the leaders through code 60 pit stops. No. 777 led by a lap over No. 92 and No. 24 Porsches, as it was beginning to look like BMW’s race to lose.
Crucially, in the fight for overall honours, the No. 92 Pure Rxcing Porsche would suffer a left front puncture. This cost the team five minutes, as they dropped off the lead lap, significantly affecting their chances at victory.
Soon, bad luck would strike the No. 33 optimum motorsport too, they were hit by a rear suspension failure when running in fifth place ruining any chance of a good result for the sole running McLaren in the race.
In the GT4 class, however, disaster would strike for the leading No. 495 Ginetta. Nine laps ahead of the rest, the car catching fire at turn seven, costing the team a victory. The No. 438 would then lead the class heading into the sunrise hours.
Spins for both the No. 710 and No. 111 didn't affect positions in the GTX class but were sure to give the respective teams a scare. The No. 81 Ferrari GT3 would crash just after the 20-hour mark as well, bringing an end to Era Motorsports race.
With two hours to go, the No. 992 Porsche cup car, running tenth in its class, was tagged by No. 928, sent into the barriers.
The front of the car was destroyed, with radiator coolant spilled over the runoff. The resulting code 60 would be the 20th of the heavily interrupted event.
Barrier repairs meant the race was neutralised for half an hour, before we went to green flag racing again with 90 minutes remaining. The No. 777 led from No. 24 and No. 92 by over a lap.
Immediately after the green flag, the No. 989 suffered a front left puncture, and attempted to limp back home to the pits. The issue was caused by a brake disc failure, with the front left unable to rotate on its way back to the pits.
With just under 40 minutes to go, the No. 102 SEAT Leon TCE car stopped at the side of the track with broken front suspension.
The quick code 60 gave the opportunity to swap some positions in classes and overall podiums. Pure Rxcing came in and took advantage of the cheap pitstop, in an attempt to jump the sister No. 24 for second place overall.
However Thomas Preining in the No. 92 would have to do very heavy fuel saving with just 15 minutes to go, losing multiple seconds a lap to the No. 24 Dinamic GT car.
Loek Hartog pushing hard to catch the ex-DTM champion. Preining would just hold on for second place however, despite being lapped by the leader in the process.
Yet, at the end of 24 hours of racing, It would be the No. 777 BMW M4 GT3 Evo ran by Team WRT with Almanar Racing and driven by Max Hesse, Dan Harper, Darren Leung, Ben Tuck and Al Faisal Al Zubair crossing the line to take victory in the desert, one lap ahead of the competition.
BMW took the win overall in No. 777, from No. 92 Pure Rxcing Porsche and No. 24 Dinamic GT Porsche. The No. 991 Paradine Competition BMW took top honours in the GT3 AM category, with the No. 91 Herberth Porsche winning out in GT3 PRO/AM.
The Red Camel No. 909 won the 992 Cup class, with No. 974 winning the 992 AM race. No. 710 Leipert Motorsport in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo dominated the GTX class.
The No. 438 AGMC Racing by Simpson Motorsport BMW GT4 won out in the GT4 class, with AsBest Racing in the No. 101 Seat Leon cup car winning the TCX class.
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