Team WRT and BMW picked up where they left off in the desert and successfully defended their Dubai 24 Hour victory after a confident, largely problem-free run that ended with a decisive one-two for the Belgian team.
The decisive move came early in the long game. Kelvin van der Linde, Anthony McIntosh, Jordan Pepper, Fran Rueda and Ben Tuck drove the #669 BMW M4 GT3 Evo to victory after a perfectly timed Code 60 during a series of GT3 pit stops turned their night on its head. The neutralization moved the car from third to first, and when the #669 finally took the lead at the start of the 11th hour, WRT never really let the race breathe again.
The nighttime efforts of Tuck and Rueda did the heavy lifting, increasing the gap to such an extent that the #669 was still in first place at the end of the 15th hour, even after completing its own stop sequence. From then on, the task became more about control than risk – precise pace, neat traffic management and staying one step ahead of the inevitable variables that arise at the end of the race.
Jordan Pepper, who was competing for the first time as a BMW M works driver, brought the car to the finish line one lap ahead of the sister model M4 GT3 Evo with starting number 27, which was driven by Christopher Haase, Stanislav Minsky, Thomas Kiefer, Mathieu Detry and Julian Hanses. However, the final lead appears to be more comfortable than the underlying pace suggested: Haase made a late push in the closing minutes, while Pepper opted for an aggressive fuel-saving strategy to avoid a stoppage. Before this divergence, the distance was about 75 seconds.
The result adds another important chapter to WRT’s Dubai record – it is the team’s fourth victory in the last five years, drawing level with Black Falcon as the most successful team in the event’s history. On the manufacturer side, BMW’s record with six victories in the Dubai 24 Hours is now as high as Porsche and thus the most victories in the overall ranking. With the victory, both Team WRT and Anthony McIntosh secured the 2025/26 24H Series Middle East Trophy.
Third place overall went to the #16 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo shared by Sergey Stolyarov, Daan Arrow, Maro Engel and Luca Stolz, four laps behind the leading BMWs. Contributing to their podium finish was the late woes of Paradine Competition’s #992 BMW, which was on its way to an impressive top-three overall finish. The BMW weekend didn’t end with GT3 either. In the GT4 class, Cerny Motorsport drove the #445 BMW M4 GT4 to victory with a huge 64 lap lead. [Images: BMW Motorsport]
