Overview
- Maro Engel led Team GMR’s No.888 Mercedes to victory with Mikael Grenier and Maxime Martin, edging Team High Class Racing by 1.036 seconds after 262 laps, with Valentino Rossi’s Team WRT BMW in third.
- Less than 20 minutes into the race, Christopher Mies hit a kangaroo at roughly 250 km/h on Conrod Straight, destroying the HRT Ford Mustang GT3 and ending the event’s sole Ford effort, though he was cleared of injury.
- Mies said his helmet and race suit were contaminated by animal remains and are likely unusable, praising Ford and Multimatic for the car’s safety after he managed to stop and exit unaided.
- Another kangaroo-related incident saw the No.32 Team WRT BMW strike a smaller animal that ricocheted into the No.6 Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG, while Rossi reported seeing kangaroos on track during his run.
- A high-speed collision between Ralf Aron’s No.77 Mercedes and Johannes Zelger’s No.79 Porsche triggered a car fire and a one-hour red flag; both drivers climbed out, and Aron was taken to Orange hospital for assessment.