WRT Victorious in 6H Abu Dhabi

Photo: Racingpixels

The Bend Team WRT took victory in the Michelin 6H Abu Dhabi as the Belgian squad returned to the top step of the podium just a week after its Dubai success.

The No. 32 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, spearheaded by factory driver Charles Weerts and co-driven by Yasser Shahin and Timur Boguslavskiy, finished ahead of the No. 16 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Sergey Stolyarov, Victor Shaytar, Sergei Borisov and Gabriele Piana.

The result marks a second consecutive Michelin 24H Series victory for the Vincent Vosse-led squad, following on from its fourth 24H Dubai win the previous weekend.

After starting eighth, the No. 32 BMW initially hit the front with Weerts at the wheel approaching halfway and then held off the Piana-driven No. 16 Mercedes-AMG in the final 30 minutes to capture the win.

Behind them, Optimum Motorsport and Herberth Motorsport scrapped for the final step on the podium in a contact-heavy battle that was eventually decided in the former’s favor.

Thomas Ikin’s No. 33 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo and Joel Sturm’s No. 80 Porsche 911 GT3 repeatedly came to blows as they fought in the closing minutes.

While Ikin went on to finish on the podium, the Porsche suffered bodywork damage and two punctures and was eventually classified sixth.

That also allowed the No. 5 Team Motopark Mercedes-AMG of Levente Revesz, Nigel Schoonderwoerd and Yelmer Buurman to move up to fourth, while Hofor Racing rounded out the overall top five and captured the Am-class victory.

In the GT4 class, Simpson Motorsport took advantage of fuel pressure issues for its closest rival to take the class victory by a margin of five laps.

The No. 438 BMW M4 GT4, driven by the all-Japanese lineup of Takashi Hata, Taiyo Ida and Kenji Suzuki, looked set to lose out to the No. 496 Continental TTR Racing Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO, until the latter capitulated with 90 minutes to go.

That dropped Ilia Sidorov, Stanislav Novikov and Cameron Mcleod to third in class, which in turn led the WS Racing trio of Jeroen Bleekemolen, Keith Gatehouse and Tudor Tudurachi to complete a BMW 1-2.