WRT Gives M4 GT3 EVO Debut Win in 24H Dubai

Al Manar Racing by Team WRT won the 20th running of the Michelin 24H Dubai, securing victory on debut for the new-for-2025 BMW M4 GT3 EVO.

The No. 777 car, driven by Darren Leung, Al Faisal Al Zubair, Ben Tuck, Dan Harper and Max Hesse completed 589 laps en route to victory, finishing a lap clear of the No. 92 Pure Rxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R piloted by Alex Malykhin, Alexey Nesov, Harry King and Thomas Preining.

The No. 92 car leapfrogged into second place in the final hour, using a late Code 60 for the stopped No. 102 AsBest Racing Cupra TCR DSG to take the final stop and jump ahead of the No. 24 Dinamic GT Porsche.

A significant amount of fuel saving then narrowly allowed Preining to narrowly stay ahead of Hartog, who shared the No. 24 car with Thomas Kiefer, Anders Fjordbach and Klaus Bachler.

The result delivers a 24-hour race victory in the first competitive outing for BMW’s updated GT3 car, while Team WRT returns to winning ways in the 24H Dubai after missing out on last year’s edition of the race.

While Winward Racing, Paradine Competition and Dragon Racing all led the race during the opening hour, as night fell over the Dubai Autodrome, the battle for the race lead developed into a three-way fight between WRT, Dinamic GT and Pure Rxcing.

Pure Rxcing was the first to suffer a setback when Harry King suffered an overnight puncture, which dropped the car behind the top two.

From there, WRT and Dinamic swapped the lead back and forth as strategies converged and diverged through the numerous Code 60 interventions spread throughout the contest.

WRT then gained the upper hand through the course of Sunday morning when Hesse’s No. 777 BMW was able to fight its way past the Kiefer-driven No. 24 Porsche out of Turn 9 with four hours remaining after emerging just behind on track after a scheduled pitstop.

From there, WRT stretched its advantage over the pair of Porsches, going on to claim its fourth event victory. BMW, meanwhile, pull level with Mercedes-Benz as the brand with the second-most wins at the 24H Dubai.

All five drivers, meanwhile, became first-time overall winners of the event.

SMP Racing’s Haupt Racing Team-operated No. 7 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo finished fourth with Sergey Sirotkin, Vitaly Petrov, Denis Remenyako, Alexander Smolyar and Kirill Smal at the wheel.

Paradine Competition’s No. 991 BMW completed the outright top five and took GT3 Am honors in the hands of Leung, Toby Sowery, Ahmad Al Harthy and Simon Traves.

Herberth Motorsport’s No. 80 Porsche, piloted by the all-Hong Kong lineup of Antares Au, Frank Yu, Jonathan Hui and Kevin Tse, finished sixth and second in GT3 Am, with the No. 21 HAAS RT Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II rounding off the class podium two places further back.

The win in the GT3 Pro-Am went to the No. 91 Herberth Motorsport Porsche driven by Ralf Bohn, Jake Pedersen, Kay van Berlo and the brothers Robert and Alfred Renauer after a late twist.

Winward Racing appeared on course to claim the class win until a late black and orange flag after a strap that had been attached to the broken splitter on the No. 16 Mercedes-AMG came loose.

The subsequent unscheduled stop dropped Gabriele Piana, Victor Shaytar, Sergey Stolyarov and Rinat Salikov outside the overall top ten and into second in class.

Ian James, Gray Newell, Zach Robichon and Hannah Grisham came home tenth overall aboard the No. 27 Heart of Racing by SPS, one place behind the No. 1 Manamauri Energy by Ebimotors Porsche.

A number of GT3 entries fell victim to attrition over the course of the 24 hours, including race newcomers Era Motorsport.

The American squad appeared on course for a GT3 Pro-Am podium with its new No. 81 Ferrari 296 GT3 until a crash for Dwight Merriman forced the car into retirement in hour 21.

Team Motopark and Car Collection Motorsport also both saw their respective cars retire after crashes, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.

Dragon Racing, after leading early on thanks to a strong performance from Dustin Blattner, dropped back after a damper failure for the No. 88 Ferrari and recovered to just outside the top ten and scoring a podium in GT3 Pro-Am.

Optimum Motorsport appeared on course for a top-five finish with its No. 33 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo until contact with another car in the refueling area cause a rear control arm failure.

The team was then also later forced to complete a gearbox change and went on to finish 46th overall.

Comtoyou Racing endured a troubled run with its pair of Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evos, with the No. 41 car failing to take the start due to a gearbox-related issue.

The sister No. 40 car then lost numerous laps after Matisse Lismont was hit by the No. 710 Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 overnight.

That Lamborghini went on to take a dominant class victory in the hands of Gerhard Watzinger, Takis, JJ Song, Don Yount and Brendon Leitch, finishing over 30 laps clear of the next car in class.