Team WRT start their Endurance 2025 campaign with a 1-2 at the 12 hours of Bathurst

To sum up the first four hours of the 12 hours of Bathurst race in a sentence: It was more about survival than position; for the survivors, it was all about nailing the strategy. This is what Valentino Rossi and Team WRT in the M4 GT3 nailed to a tee, rounding up their 1-2 finish.

As always, the first 40 or so minutes were covered with the cold blanket of night. Relying on the full-beam headlights, the turbocharged Ferrari and BMWs took advantage of the cooler conditions and took the lead. As the temperature rose, the turbos got less effective, and the order almost turned on its head.

The 911 Porsche was leading the way, heading into the fourth hour of the race. Four cars were already out.

The 222 Mercedes was first to bite the dust with a driver error, grazing the wall and breaking a rear wishbone, dropping them laps down. Just after the 90-minute mark, a mistake from the GT4 McLaren Actura heading into Skyline, turn 11, caused the car to spin on the curb, throwing the car into the wall and ricocheting off it, collecting the GT3 Audi R8. The Audi would later rejoin the race several hours later. The McLaren was unsalvageable.

Then came the big crash of the day, an airborne moment at the top of Skyline for the number 4 Mercedes AMG. Stephan Grove, team owner of Grove Racing, took flight long enough to be served a meal by cabin crew. He almost barrel-rolled into the ground. Luckily, the car landed the right side up. Grove was taken to the hospital for a quick check-up and is all ok.

To get down to the nitty-gritty, these driver errors may have influenced by the Pirelli rubber they were driving on. As the tyres got further into their stints, temperature in the tyre increased, creating miniature volcanos across the tyre, spewing out molten rubber, reducing grip.

With large quantities of Safety Car periods, the well-established and experienced Team WRT took advantage of cheap driver through penalties and pitstops, costing the team minimal time and granting them the race lead. As soon as the 6-hour mark hit, Team WRT was comfortable, able to hold off any other cars during re-starts, and consistently leading.

Although the driver of the day was most definitely Jamie Jay, the ProAM driver for Volante Rosso. The Aussie driver was taking his Aston Martin to places it wasn’t supposed to be, fighting the pro-class drivers. If he was driving that BMW, he would have been unstoppable. With an unfortunate last few stints, Volante Rosso dropped to P13 overall, finishing third in class.