Team WRT and BMW picked up right where they left off in the desert, successfully defending their Dubai 24 Hours win after a commanding, largely trouble-free run that ended in a decisive 1–2 for the Belgian squad.
The winning move came early in the long game. Kelvin van der Linde, Anthony McIntosh, Jordan Pepper, Fran Rueda and Ben Tuck steered the #669 BMW M4 GT3 Evo to victory after a perfectly timed Code 60 during a cycle of GT3 pit stops flipped their night on its head. The neutralization elevated the car from third to first, and once the #669 grabbed the lead for good at the start of the 11th hour, WRT never really let the race breathe again.
Overnight stints from Tuck and Rueda did the heavy lifting, stretching the gap to the point that by the end of Hour 15 the #669 still held P1 even after completing its own stop sequence. From there, the job became about control rather than risk—precise pace, clean traffic management, and staying ahead of the inevitable late-race variables.
Jordan Pepper, making his first start as a BMW M works driver, brought the car to the flag one lap ahead of the sister #27 M4 GT3 Evo driven by Christopher Haase, Stanislav Minsky, Thomas Kiefer, Mathieu Detry and Julian Hanses. The final margin looks more comfortable than the underlying pace suggested, though: Haase made a late splash for fuel in the closing minutes, while Pepper opted for an aggressive fuel-save strategy to avoid stopping. Before that divergence, the gap had hovered around 75 seconds.
The result adds another major chapter to WRT’s Dubai record—this is the team’s fourth win in the last five years, drawing them level with Black Falcon as the most successful outfit in the event’s history. On the manufacturer side, BMW’s tally now matches Porsche with six Dubai 24 Hours victories, joint-most overall. The win also wrapped up the 2025/26 24H Series Middle East Trophy for both Team WRT and Anthony McIntosh.
Third overall went to Winward Racing’s #16 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, shared by Sergey Stolyarov, Daan Arrow, Maro Engel and Luca Stolz, four laps behind the leading BMWs. Their podium was helped by late heartbreak for Paradine Competition’s #992 BMW, which had been on course for a stunning overall top-three. BMW’s weekend didn’t stop with GT3 either. In GT4, Cerny Motorsport cruised to victory with the #445 BMW M4 GT4 by a massive 64 laps. [Images: BMW Motorsport]
