Mercedes squad smashes record to win astonishing Bathurst 12 Hour

Mercedes-AMG Team GMR have blown the record for the lowest starting position to win the Meguiar's Bathurst 12 Hour out of the water after a remarkable 2026 edition.

Maro Engel/Mikael Grenier/Maxime Martin started this morning from all the way back in 29th position after a mechanical issue, and chipped away all day to be in the perfect position to capitalise on a dramatic late race restart that brought heartbreak for Team WRT and 75 Express.

Their 29th starting position absolutely demolished the previous record for the lowest starting position of a winner, which was Bentley's start of 11th ahead of their popular 2020 win.

It was a captivating final hour, that began with the final BMW M Safety Car appearance of the day.

Any questions about fuel were quickly erased when Jayden Ojeda and Chaz Mostert found themselves embroiled in a fierce battle for 13th.

Ojeda was wildly blocking down Pit Straight after the pair clashed at The Chase, before Ojeda went too deep into Griffins Bend and tagged the outside wall.

An out of control Ojeda ricocheted into Mostert as he fought his terminally damaged #6 Mercedes, with the #222's day coming to a disappointing end after an overall exemplary weekend.

That had the effect of bringing most of the field back into the pits, all save for Kelvin van der Linde, who cycled through to the lead of the race as he had topped up on the previous Safety Car, as had Mostert.

However that raised it's own questions as to just how much fuel the South African had, with the chasing pack all fuelled up to go flat out to the end.

The green flag came out with just under 40 minutes to go, and it all kicked off for the lead as Gounon launched a big attack on the BMW immediately.

Van der Linde moved to cover with Gounon at the absolute edge of his braking performance. Contact was inevitable, and Gounon shovelled the reigning champion wide, with Maxime Martin soaring through into the lead.

Amazingly, Boccolacci was up into second in a Bronze class car, with Farfus also capitalising to go into third in the sister Team WRT BMW.

Both van der Linde and Gounon were wounded with damage, with the BMW's rear left damaged so badly that officials black flagged him to remove the loose bodywork, whilst Gounon sunk back through the pack.

Another on a charge was Max Hesse in the Team KRC BMW that was running second in Bronze, as he tore through the pack to challenge Will Brown for fourth with 10 minutes remaining.

However, it would remain status quo to the finish, with the #888 winning by just over a second from the Kerong Li/Anders Fjordbach/Boccolacci Porsche, which won the Bronze class.

Farfus would hold on for third in the #46 Team WRT BMW, with Valentino Rossi returning to the 12 Hour podium for the second time in as many years alongside the hard-charging Raffaele Marciello.

Brown and Hesse would cross the line in fourth and fifth, the former being the top Supercars driver home, and the latter picking up second in Bronze class in the #89 Team KRC BMW alongside Cunfan Ruan and Maxime Oosten.

Pro-Am victory was wrapped up by the #45 RAM Motorsport/GWR Australia Mercedes of Brett Hobson/Dylan O'Keeffe/Garth Walden, who finished in 13th outright with a lap in hand over the class runner-up.

The sole remaining Invitational class entry, the #111 111 Racing IRC GT of Darren Currie/Axle Donaldson/Danny Stutterd, finished in 25th outright.

The sole GT4 entry, the #42 Method Motorsport McLaren of Adrian Kunzle/Kevin Madsen/Steven Agakhani, finished right behind them in 26th.