Five year’s since the brand last won the classic endurance race, the BMW M3 GT2 claimed BMW’s 19th victory on the 154-lap circuit..
The winning car was driven by Jörg Müller (DE), Augusto Farfus (BR), Uwe Alzen (DE) and Pedro Lamy (PT), who produced a flawless performance despite gearbox problems in the last three hours.
The second BMW M3 GT2, driven by Dirk Werner (DE), Dirk Müller (DE), Andy Priaulx (GB) and Dirk Adorf (DE), finished seventh in front of 220,000 spectators. A crash, while swerving to avoid a collision, resulted in the four drivers losing an hour in the pits early on in the race and dropping back to 182nd, before fighting back.
Of the 198 cars lining up for this year’s event, 63 were BMWs.
Porsche’s new 911 GT3 R Hybrid led the race for 22 hours, before engine troubles saw it forced to leave the competition.
Three minutes behind the winning BMW was the Ferrari F430 GT in second place. Third overall was the Phoenix Racing Audi R8.
