
Notching its first victory at Mount Panorama since 2010, BMW Team WRT has celebrated a one-two finish at the Bathurst 12 Hour, including second place for MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi.
Putting its performance down to a “perfect race strategy”, Team WRT said its victory was ultimately decided by the BMW M4 GT3’s fuel consumption advantage which saw it avoid refuelling during the last laps of the race, unlike other competitors.

BMW M Motorsport’s win comes after numerous attempts since GT3 cars have been competing at the Bathurst 12 Hour. For brothers Kelvin and Sheldon van der Linde, who piloted the winning M4 along with Augusto Farfus, it was their first joint victory in a BMW M Motorsport car while for Rossi, it was his first podium at the Bathurst 12 Hour.
Sheldon van der Linde taking the chequered flag in car #32 capped an epic, close-fought race that was frenetic from start to finish. Chaz Mostert from Arise Ferrari made headway early and was leading by the seventh lap.
Dramatic incidents occurred throughout the day, including Craig Lowndes from Scott Taylor Motorsport crashing around 1.5 hours in and the Method Motorsport McLaren losing control and almost taking out the Valmont Audi. Nearly 2.5 hours into the race Kenny Habul from 75 Express Mercedes side-swiped Stephen Grove from Grove Racing, causing a sizeable stack and sending him to hospital to be checked.

As the race continued, it was clear the van der Linde-Farfus partnership had largely controlled the race and by the end, won by a full 10 seconds. After the win, Sheldon van der Linde said: “I am very, very happy! I think this victory was down to excellent execution of the guys at Team WRT. I don’t think I have ever seen such a perfect execution in terms of strategy before. We did not have the outright fastest car today, but still we did it! Both my teammates didn’t make any mistakes.”
Speaking about his second placing along with fellow drivers Raffaele Marciello and Charles Weerts, Moto GP legend Rossi said: “This podium is a fantastic way to start the season. The whole weekend was great, as we were always strong and competitive. We were able to fight with our sister car until I made a mistake unfortunately and we had to serve a drive-through penalty. But we managed to come back with great pace. I am very happy with the result.”
The Bathurst 12 Hour was the first round of the 2025 Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC), with the Nurburgring in Germany next in June, Spa in Belgium in the same month, Suzuka in Japan in September and the final round in Indianapolis in the USA in October.

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