BMW in box seat, Brown stuns in epic 12 Hour battle

Mount Panorama is bracing for a grandstand finish to the 2025 Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour after six cars across four brands led outright into the final two hours.

Approaching the 10-hour mark, the #32 WRT BMW and pole-sitting #77 Craft-Bamboo Mercedes-AMG cleared out after a thrilling battle between Alessio Picariello (#911 Absolute Racing Porsche) and Will Brown (#26 Arise Racing Ferrari).

A Picariello error helped Brown take third, before the next round of pit stops saw the reins handed to Ayhancan Guvan and Daniel Serra respectively.

In an enthralling strategic race, Augusto Farfus previously held sway in the #32 ahead of Jayden Ojeda (#77 Mercedes-AMG), Chaz Mostert (#26 Ferrari), Guven (#911 Porsche), Jules Gounon (#75 75 Energy Mercedes-AMG) and Charles Weerts (#46 BMW).

At that stage, a number of lead contenders had been taken out of contention, with the #183 Jamec Racing/Team MPC Audi and #888 GruppeM Mercedes-AMG both striking trouble.

Farfus, Ojeda, Mostert, Guven and Gounon were covered by nine seconds, with Weerts — recovering from a penalty — 14.5s from the lead. Earlier, the #46 had fortuitously completed half of its penalty under yellow, topped up on fuel, and was slightly off sequence.

The #75 was also off sequence, and the top four closed to within two seconds as the leaders hit traffic. On the 201st lap, Ojeda, Mostert and Guven stopped, handing over to Maximilian Götz, Picariello and Brown. Farfus then handed over to Kelvin van der Linde, before Gounon and Weerts held out until lap 206, swapping to Stolz and Rossi.

As the field cleansed, Kelvin van der Linde had a 6.1s advantage over Götz, who had 5.8s on Picariello. Brown sat just behind, with four-second buffers behind between Stolz and Rossi. All told, the top six were covered by 22 seconds.

Picariello and Brown were taking time away from each other in their epic, letting the #32 and #77 off the hook. After a number of attacks into Murray’s Corner, the duo made light contact at Forrests Elbow. Stolz, meanwhile, was caught by lapped traffic.

Brown continued to gnaw away at Picariello, launching an attack on the outside of The Chase, before repeating the effort at Griffins Bend. The deficit to Götz blew out to 11 seconds, with Stolz four seconds behind.

Time and again, Brown tried and failed to dislodge Picariello, before the latter finally cracked, bowling a wide at Murray’s Corner. Brown sailed through into third, but had dropped 16.8s to Götz, who had closed to within two seconds of the #32.

Brown and Picariello were brought in on lap 233 and handed over to Serra and Guven respectively, before Auer took over the #77 from Götz on the following lap.

WRT and 75 Energy stretched their fuel out before the #32 pitted on the 238th lap, with Sheldon van der Linde taking over from brother Kelvin. Rossi swapped with Marciello on the following lap, the #46 clipping the pit entry gutter in the process.

Stolz stopped and rejoined line astern with Serra, with Götz two seconds behind Sheldon van der Linde. Serra cleared Stolz down Conrod Straight, with Guven right behind, and Marciello 10 seconds down the road.

The period also featured clutch problems for the #14 Volante Rosso Aston Martin, which gifted the Silver lead to the #93 Wall Racing Lamborghini.

Crucially, the wave-by window closed as the clock ticked over 10 hours, with six cars remaining on the lead lap.