•    No.27 Team WRT heads pack of BMWs nearing half-distance of Michelin 24H DUBAI
•    German marque fills top four in GT3 with bullet-proof performance thus far 
•    Drama for Winward Racing and HAAS RT with near identical wheel-loss incidents
•    Tierra Outdoor Racing, Muhlner Motorsport and Red Camel battling hard in 992 
•    Team CMR Ginetta heads Rossa Racing in GTX, Cerny BMW in charge in GT4
•    asBest Racing Cupra TCR DSG building strong advantage in TCE-TCX

Dubai, UAE (17 January 2026):
At the 10-hour juncture of an action-packed and very dramatic Michelin 24H DUBAI, Team WRT and Paradine Competition are in control at the head of GT3 with their respective BMW M4 GT3 EVO cars filling the top four positions.

As the clock struck 23.00 local time, Team WRT’s No.27 BMW – shared by Julian Hanses, Christopher Hasse, Thomas Kiefer, Stanislav Minsky and Mathieu Detry – led the race from the sister No.669 car piloted by Anthony McIntosh, Fran Rueda, Jordan Pepper, Kelvin van der Linde and Ben Tuck. 

The twin Paradine Competition BMW M4s were third and fourth, the No.991 shared by Augusto Farfus, Pedro Ebrahim, Jamie Day, James Kellett and Darren Leung sitting third from the No.992 AM class leading BMW of Ahmad Al Harthy and doubling-up drivers Leung, Kellett and McIntosh.

The race started with Benjamin Paque just holding the lead on the inside at Turn One in the pole qualifying TFT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, but van der Linde had soon moved ahead in the No.669 BMW. Incredibly, from eighth on the grid, Loek Hartog rocketed into third and he then made quick work of Paque to take second in the No.10 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R (992).

Due to a couple of GT3 cars making contact at Turn Nine on lap one, the first Code 60 of the race was required. After a short hiatus racing resumed and van der Linde, Hartog and Paque battled fiercely – although third placed Paque then began to drop away from the top two as he came under immense pressure from Kellett in the GT3 AM leading No.992 Paradine BMW.

Having made incredible progress from 12th on the grid, Kellett grabbed third on lap seven from Paque, Maro Engel climbed to fourth a few laps later in the No.16 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG and then Farfus in the second of the Paradine BMWs shuffled Paque back to sixth. 

All remained very close up to the first round of stops, van der Linde and Hartog pitting nose-to-tail with 75 minutes elapsed. Herberth’s stop was rapid, Antares Au taking over the Porsche and getting ahead of the No.669 BMW – now with McIntosh at the wheel. This all happened just before the race’s second Code 60, due to a stranded car on the pit-straight. 

There were another flurry of Code 60s leading up to, and into, the second hour – the longest when the Ajith RedAnt Racing Mercedes-AMG stopped on track with engine failure. Creating a further shake-up of the order, at this stage Dustin Blattner led in the Al Manar by Dragon Racing Ferrari 296.

In hour four the BMWs took control with Farfus in the No.991 leading from Jordan Pepper in the No.669. Alexander Bukhantsov held third, the AM lead, in the No.2 HAAS RT Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II, with Al Harthy a fraction behind in Paradine’s No.992 and the No.27 WRT car fifth with Kiefer.

As sunset arrived the twin Paradine BMWs were one-two with Farfus leading Al Harthy. After more Code 60 the No.2 Audi took the lead with Alim Geshev at the wheel, then double-duty driver Kellett returned to the top, this time in the No.991 BMW. 

Hour eight then delivered a massive blow for two of the lead contenders. First, the No.81 Winward Mercedes-AMG came to a halt at Turn Eight minus its right-rear wheel and with damage caused which triggered retirment – driver Marvin Dienst in disbelief.

Around 30 minutes later, an almost carbon copy occurred when James Winslow stopped the No.2 Audi R8 at the same part of the track with its right-rear wheel having detached – frustratingly when the car was on its out-lap from the pits. HAAS RT were able to get the car back into the race, albeit 10 laps off the overall lead, but there were further problems identified with the brake line.

Still the BMW contingent had the edge and at the completion of 10 hours Hanses had the lead in the No.27 Team WRT BMW from McIntosh in the sister No.669 car – Ebrahim having just pitted in the erstwhile leading No.991 Paradine BMW. Leung headed GT3 AM, just outside the overall podium, with Hartog in the No.10 Herberth Porsche heading GT3 PRO-AM.

Rik Breukers, from 992 class pole, led away untroubled in the Red Camel-Jordans.nl Porsche with Muhlner Motorsport’s Paul Meijer second and Huub van Eijndhoven third in the Tierra Outdoor Racing by FACH car. The lead changed hands through the early pit-stops and Code 60s, Robert de Haan coming to the fore in the Tierra Outdoor Porsche.

Jiatong Liang took a turn in the lead of 992 for Muhlner, then Martin Ragginger in the No.985 Neuhofer Rennsport car, before de Haan returned to the top of the class with just under three hours completed. The No.910 Seblajoux Racing Porsche, the No.914 Razoon – More Than Racing car and the No.924 Red Ant Racing entry each led during subsequent hours with incredibly close action.

At one stage, less than 10 seconds split the top four in 992 – easily the closest lead battle of the entire field. When the race reached the eight hour mark, van Eijndhoven led the way for Tierra Outdoor with Meijer second for Muhlner and Luc Breukers third for Red Camel. The No.914 car then took a hit to its challenge when, during an out-lap from the pits, a front wheel became detached. 

Van Eijndhoven pitted at the 10-hour mark from the 992 lead, handing over to Wouter Boerekamps, with Ivo Breukers running in second for Red Camel and Mathys Jaubert third in the No.910 car. Team GP-Elite held the 992 AM lead, fourth overall, with Jukka Honkavuori at the wheel. 

GT 3 Poland’s Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 took the GTX lead at the start in the hands of Andrezj Lewandowski, although the Rossa LM GT, driven by Roman Rusinov, soon moved ahead while the pole starting Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini of Manz Thalin had slipped down to third.

The Rossa continued nicely at the head of the class and pretty much bossed GTX for the first three hours. In hour four the Team CMR Ginetta G56 GT2 started to make its presence felt, Jack Mitchell climbing through to the lead from the GT 3 Poland car with Seweryn Mazur at the wheel.

Mike Simpson took over from Mitchell as the Ginetta’s challenge solidified and at five hours the lead was roughly a minute from GT 3 Poland. The Ginetta stayed at the front for the next hour or so, but Rusinov returned to the lead of GTX in the Rossa and built a gap to Andrew Bentley in the Ginetta.

At one third distance under five seconds split the Rossa and Nico Prost in the Ginetta, but by the time the 10-hour mark was reached Mitchell was back in the Ginetta and held a lead of a couple of laps over the Rossa, which was in the hands of Evgeny Kireev.

Joshua Bednarski stormed into a big GT4 lead at the wheel of the Cerny Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 (G82), although the No.427 SRS Team Sorg Rennsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS (982) got into its stride more and more through the first few hours. 

As afternoon became evening, Florian Sternkopf headed GT4 for Cerny by a healthy margin from Benito Tagle in the Porsche and the order remained the same during the subsequent hours. At the conclusion of 10 hours of racing, Cerny’s lead stood at eight laps over the No.427 Porsche.

In the TCE-TCX class, the No.127 SRS Team Sorg Rennsport Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS (982) led from pole in the hands of Darian Donkel, with the No.111 asBest Racing Porsche 718 of Zaamin Jaffer making great early progress to second. Donkel was able to build a comfortable advantage, although the lead did change hands back and forth through pit-stops and Code 60s.

Three hours into the action the No.111 Porsche picked up some damage, resulting in a pit visit and major loss of time, and not long after the No.127 Porsche also trundled to the pits with front end damage from another incident. As a result, the No.102 asBest Cupra TCR DSG moved into the lead with Pia Ohlsson driving and at 10 hours, with Lutz Obermann at the wheel, the lead was four laps.

The Michelin 24H DUBAI continues to a finish at 13.00 local time on Sunday, 18th January. Follow live timing via the links at www.24hseries.com and watch the action through Creventic Motorsports TV on YouTube.