Team Mercedes' Engel/Martin win the 2026 Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour in dramaric comback from 29 position.

Mercedes-AMG Team GMR have pulled off an all-time Bathurst miracle, storming from 29th on the grid to win the 2026 Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour.

After a mechanical issue in the morning, Maro Engel / Mikael Grenier / Maxime Martin started way down the order, but slowly picked off cars all day and put themselves in the perfect spot for a chaotic final restart.

The Porsche wins the Bronze class and second overall. It was piloted by Dorian Boccolacci, Anders Fjordbach and Kerong Li.They started 30th and brilliant strategy and driving brought them up to second overall. It is a podium finish yet again for the No.46 crew of Augusto Farfus, Raffaele Marciello and Valentino Rossi.

That 29th-to-1st charge smashes the previous record for the lowest starting position by a winner (previously 11th, set by Bentley in 2020).

Late-race drama (classic Bathurst stuff)

The final hour kicked off with another Safety Car, and things got spicy fast.

A fierce scrap between Jayden Ojeda (#6 Mercedes) and Chaz Mostert (#222 Mercedes) ended in heartbreak for the Aussie fan favourite:

Ojeda hit the wall at Griffins Bend, then collected Mostert, ending the #222’s race after what had been a brilliant weekend.

The restart that decided it

With under 40 minutes left, Kelvin van der Linde (#32 BMW) was leading thanks to a fuel gamble — but he had a pack of fully-fuelled cars ready to attack.

At the restart, Jules Gounon (#75 Mercedes) went for a huge move on van der Linde, contact followed, and it opened the door for Maxime Martin (#888 Mercedes) to shoot through into the lead.

Podium + big class results

1st: #888 Mercedes-AMG Team GMR Mercedes (Engel/Grenier/Martin)

2nd: #86 High Class Racing Porsche (Li/Fjordbach/Boccolacci) — Bronze class winner

3rd: #46 Team WRT BMW (Farfus/Rossi/Marciello)

For Aussie/NZ fans, the top local highlight late was Will Brown (#55 Audi) holding on strongly for 4th, while Max Hesse (#89 BMW) charged hard to finish 5th and take 2nd in Bronze.

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