BMW 1-2-3 at Dubai Mid-Distance

BMWs occupied the top three places at mid-distance of the Michelin 24H Dubai with the No. 669 WRT machine in the lead, but two front-running crews bizarrely dropped out of contention after each losing a wheel.

First, the No. 81 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo had worked its way into third place during the eighth hour when Marvin Dienst came to a halt heading onto the back straight with the right-rear wheel missing. Although the car was recovered to the pits, the team opted to retire it from the race.

Incredibly, barely 30 minutes later, there was a carbon copy when the No. 2 HAAS RT Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II that had just taken the lead also came to a halt entering the back straight with the right-rear wheel missing.

Jamie Winslow did return to the track but only briefly while a damaged brake line was fixed, and the car subsequently fell nearly 20 laps off the lead.

There were no such problems for the fleet of BMWs with the two WRT M4 GT3 EVOs as well as the Paradine Competition pair all still in contention.

Ben Tuck was leading in the No. 669 at the 12-hour mark, heading the No. 992 Paradine entry of James Kellett by around a minute.

Completing the BMW stranglehold was Mathieu Detry in the No. 27 WRT machine, while Augusto Farfus made it four BMWs in the top five as he ran fifth in the No. 991 entry – which had pitted just before reaching mid-distance.

The one interloper among the BMWs was the No. 777 Dragon Racing Ferrari 296 GT3, with Axcil Jefferies having guided the car up to fourth place.

Behind Farfus, next up were a pair of Mercedes-AMG machines with the No. 16 Winward car just ahead of the No. 4 Grove Racing by GetSpeed crew.

There had been a close four-way fight at the front of the 992 class but this became more fragmented, not least when the No. 909 polesitting Red Camel-Jordans.nl car spun into the barriers through the Turn 3/4 sweepers when Ivo Breukers got on the marbles having taken avoiding action when caught out by an unexpected pass from a GT3.

The No. 962 FACH AUTO TECH Porsche therefore had the lead at half-distance by nearly a lap over the No. 939 Team GP-Elite crew.

It was much closer in GTX with the Team CMR Ginetta G56 GT2 and the Rossa LM GT being split by around 30 seconds just before the 12-hour mark when the Rossa pitted.

But there is nothing close about the GT4 division with the Cerny Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 enjoying a six-lap lead after 12 hours.