Int’l GTC: Bathurst 12 Hours
Snapshot on Motorsport.tv by Luc Warnotte
What a fantastic Bathurst 12 Hours full of twists and turns on a fabulous race track reminiscent of the Nordschleife (Nürburgring); even worse at the ascent and descent of the Mount Panorama with no clearance at all at certain points. During the last 10 minutes, we saw Matt Campbell (Porsche 911 #912) passing millimeters from the wall in a desperate chase behind Jules Gounon (Mercedes AMG #75).
The first 3 hours
The Bathurst 12 Hours started in the dark at 5:45 am with a beautiful sunrise during the first hour. GruppeM Racing’s polesitter Engel with Mercedes AMG #888 took the lead ahead of Maxi Goetz in the Mercedes AMG GT3 of Supercheap Auto Racing, Thomas Priening’s Manthey Porsche 911 GT3R, Luca Stolz in the SunEnergy1 Mercedes AMG GT3 and Augusto Farfus in the BMW M Team WRT BMW M4 #46.
📷 © Courtesy of BMW M Motorsport: Augusto Farfus with #46 BMW M4 GT3.
We could see that the BMW had difficulty following the Mercedes AMG - Porsche quartet. After his stint, Farfus confessed that “we lack pace to be competitive”. Dries Vanthoor with sister BMW #32 was blocked in a group of ten cars following Liam Talbot’s MPC Audi R8 and Lucas Auer in the Craft Bamboo Mercedes who were distanced from the top five each lap. Within the first 30’, Vanthoor managed to grab sixth after passing Talbot and Auer.
Snapshot on Motorsport.tv by Luc Warnotte
After 13 laps, the only Audi in contention for the race win, driven by Christopher Haase, was punted by Duvashen Padayache’s Valmont Racing Mercedes sending its left rear into the wall. Back to the garage, the team had to abandon.
A 20 minutes Full Course Yellow just after two hours of racing enabled the top 10 contenders to regroup so that, at the end of the first quarter of the race, van Gisbergen’s #888 Mercedes was in front followed by Campbell (Porsche #912).
📷 © Courtesy of BMW M Motorsport: BMW M Team WRT, #32 Shell BMW M4 GT3, Dries Vanthoor, Sheldon van der Linde, Charles Weerts; #46 BMW M4 GT3, Augusto Farfus, Maxime Martin, Valentino Rossi.
Behind, Grenier (Mercedes #999) was followed by Rossi (BMW M #46) and Weerts (BMW M #32). Talbot with Audi #65 was sixth ahead of Habul (Mercedes #75), who served a drive-through penalty for crossing the pit exit blend line and had a brief off before he served his penalty.
Mid-race Bathurst 12 Hours
📷 © Courtesy of Manthey-Racing: Matt Campbell, Mathieu Jaminet and Thomas Preining in the Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R #912.
Snapshot on Motorsport.tv by Luc Warnotte
Shane van Gisbergen (#888 Triple Eight Mercedes) and Matt Campbell (#912 Manthey EMA Porsche) were battling in front until a second safety car slowed them. After pit stops, Preining replacing Campbell on board of #912 Porsche was leading the race ahead of van Gisbergen.
After a third safety car, Farfus (BMW M #46) put van Gisbergen seriously under pressure until the BMW driver was attacked by Engel (Mercedes #999). Engel was too optimistic and van der Linde (BMW M #32) took the opportunity to take P4.
Farfus would put van Gisbergen under pressure a bit later but was not successful.
At mid-race, Jules Gounon with #75 Mercedes was leading the race lead with an 18s margin to Jaminet (Porsche 911). Marciello '(Mercedes #999) was third, Juncadella (Mercedes #77) fourth, Vanthoor (BMW M #32) took over Rossi (BMW M #46) into fifth.
9 Hours Bathurst 12 Hours
📷 © Courtesy of BMW M Motorsport: BMW M Team WRT, #32 Shell BMW M4 GT3, Dries Vanthoor, Sheldon van der Linde, Charles Weerts; #46 BMW M4 GT3, Augusto Farfus, Maxime Martin, Valentino Rossi.
All top-6 contenders did the next round of stops during the first half hour after mid-race with different strategies (fuel only or not). As a result, Gounon (#75 Mercedes) was leading Marciello (#999 Mercedes) and Campbell (Porsche #912) was third.
Gounon was increasing his lead to 17” ahead of Marciello until a fifth safety car made its appearance. Top contenders made their pit stop except for Gounon with #912 Porsche being able to jump the #999 Mercedes in the stops.
After Bathurst 12 Hours went green again, Engel (#999 Mercedes) took over Preining (Porsche #912) and both BMWs were able to clear Ellis (#77 Mercedes).
During the last half hour of the nine hours mark, all teams pit for driver swap which left Marciello (#999) leading the race with a 25” gap back to Jaminet (#912). Vanthoor (#32) and Stolz (#75) were next ahead of Farfus (#46), Götz (#888) and Nicky Catsburg in the #77 Craft-Bamboo Mercedes.
Last 3 hours of Bathurst 12 Hours
Snapshot on Motorsport.tv by Luc Warnotte
#999 GruppeM Mercedes was leading comfortably until it had to replace a communication device provided by the event itself. The longer final stop gave the opportunity to Gounon (#75 Mercedes) to take the lead.
Snapshot on Motorsport.tv by Luc Warnotte
With 45’ to go, Engel collided with Gounon and had to do a drive-through being relegated to third place.
📷 © Courtesy of Manthey-Racing: Matt Campbell, Mathieu Jaminet and Thomas Preining in the Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R #912.
For the last 25’ Campbell with Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R #912 started chasing Gounon with #75 Sun Energy 1 Mercedes AMG GT3. Both engaged in a sprint race with Campbell grabbing 1/10 th sec. per 1/10 sec after 2.000 km. It started to be tough for Jules Gounon with used tires as his team didn’t change tires for his last stint. The gap between Gounon and Campbell narrowed to 0,8” but, with 17’ to go Gounon increased the gap to 1.370”.
Engel (GruppeM Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 #999) fired like a volcano and was chasing in 3rd, 8.5 sec. behind Campbell. Sheldon van der Linde was 4th, 29.4 sec. behind him.
Crossing the finish line of Bathurst 12 Hours
Snapshot on Motorsport.tv by Luc Warnotte
📷 © Courtesy of Mercedes AMG: Jules Gounon, Kenny Habul and Luca Stolz celebrating victory with Sun Energy1 Racing Mercedes #75.
With Gounon crossing the checkered flag first, he clinched a third consecutive triumph (with Bentley in 2020 and Sun Energy1 in 2021) and a second in a row for SunEnergy1 Racing and Kenny Habul and Luca Stolz.
Matt Campbell, Mathieu Jaminet and Thomas Preining finished second in the Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R #912.
Maro Engel, Raffaele Marciello and Mikael Grenier rounded out the podium with GruppeM Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 #999.
📷 © Courtesy of BMW M Motorsport: BMW M Team WRT, #32 Shell BMW M4 GT3, Dries Vanthoor, Sheldon van der Linde, Charles Weerts.
Sheldon van der Linde, Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts with the #32 BMW M Team WRT BMW finished fourth ahead of Shane Van Gisbergen, Broc Feeney and Miximillian Götz with the #888 Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes.
Maxime Martin, Augusto Farfus and Valentino Rossi ended sixth with the #46 BMW M Team WRT BMW M4 GT3.
Drivers reactions after the Bathurst 12 Hours
📷 © Courtesy of BMW M Motorsport: BMW M Team WRT, #32 Shell BMW M4 GT3, Dries Vanthoor, Sheldon van der Linde, Charles Weerts.
Sheldon van der Linde (#32 Shell BMW M4 GT3, 4th place): “It’s honestly my favorite track on the calendar now, that’s for sure. I really had high hopes coming here and my expectations raised even higher when I drove the track for the first time so I am really thankful to BMW M Team WRT and BMW M Motorsport for giving me this chance to finally come to Bathurst. I already want to come back next year because I feel we have unfinished business. Unfortunately, the race did not go as we kind of planned but we will have another chance in the future.”
Dries Vanthoor (#32 Shell BMW M4 GT3, 4th place): “It’s not the result we would have hoped for and we came for but everybody did a great job. Team, BMW M Motorsport, car, drivers – nobody made any mistakes. It was just the maximum we could do this time. I think you can say that we are the best of the rest. I hope that in the next rounds, we will be capable of fighting with the other cars because at the moment we can’t. What we can do is to continue to work on the car and on ourselves but everybody did a great job.”
Charles Weerts (#32 Shell BMW M4 GT3, 4th place): “It has been my first time at Bathurst and my first race with BMW M Motorsport, so I am happy that the car is still in one piece. That was obviously the first goal. Fourth place is nothing dramatic but obviously, we came here to Australia aiming a bit higher but the Mercedes have been way too fast for us and we could not do anything more. The strategy was good, the start was good, the car was good and we executed the job like we had to do it. We can be happy about our job and now we move on to the next one.”
📷 © Courtesy of BMW M Motorsport: BMW M Team WRT, #46 BMW M4 GT3, Augusto Farfus, Maxime Martin, Valentino Rossi.
Valentino Rossi (#46 BMW M4 GT3, 6th place): “My first Bathurst experience has been very good because it’s a great place. For us Europeans, it is a legendary place because we always play it on the simulator. To have the chance to race here and experience the real track is great. It is a fantastic circuit. You have to maintain attention but it is very enjoyable when you drive. I think that also my speed and performance were good. I feel good in the car; it is very good to drive, but during the race, especially in the hot conditions, we need a bit more pace. We could have been in the top five but overall it was a good race, and being the first experience, it was very positive.”
Augusto Farfus (#46 BMW M4 GT3, 6th place): “I am very happy. It was my first experience with BMW M Team WRT and it was great. Unfortunately, we have not been rewarded with a better result. Vale did an incredible job as the whole team did. I think we have a great base to build on so I can’t wait to go to Kyalami soon. Thanks to BMW M Motorsport, to the team and my teammates – everyone has done an incredible job.”
Maxime Martin (#46 BMW M4 GT3, 6th place): “We had a good start to the race. We have always been in a good pack and with the safety cars and so on we were running quite okay in the morning, but then we definitely lacked a lot of pace and we could not fight anyone. We also had a small issue. We were hoping for more than P6 but I think we can improve and am looking forward to the next one.”
