\n Fuji. Second place in Austin (USA), third place in Fuji (JPN):
\n the BMW M4 GT3 EVO continues its successful streak in the final
\n stages of the FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC). In the
\n penultimate race at the Fuji International Speedway, Augusto Farfus
\n (BRA), Timur Boguslavskiy, and Yasser Shahin (AUS) drove the #31 The
\n Bend Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO to a third-place finish. The trio
\n achieved an impressive comeback from 14th on the grid. The #46 car,
\n which had finished second in Austin, secured another strong
\n fourth-place result this time. In the Hypercar class, the #20 Shell
\n BMW M Hybrid V8 crossed the finish line in ninth place, while the
\n #15 car retired after a crash.<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
The Japanese fans witnessed a spectacular six-hour race filled with
\n numerous overtakes and collisions. Unfortunately, the #15 BMW M Hybrid
\n V8, driven by Kevin Magnussen (DEN), Raffaele Marciello (SUI), and
\n Dries Vanthoor (BEL), was involved in two incidents. First, Magnussen
\n was hit and spun by another car. Later, Marciello had to avoid a
\n suddenly slowing Hypercar, resulting in a crash into the track
\n barrier, which ended the race for the car.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The #20 car started from an excellent fifth position after a strong
\n qualifying performance by Sheldon van der Linde (RSA). During the
\n race, he and his teammates Ren\u00e9 Rast (GER) and Robin Frijns (NED)
\n fought hard to recover after a drive-through penalty. Their efforts
\n concluded with a ninth-place finish.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both BMW M4 GT3 EVO cars in the LMGT3 class delivered spectacular
\n comebacks. After a disappointing qualifying session, the cars started
\n from 11th and 14th positions but quickly worked their way up the
\n field. The final stages turned into a strategic gamble, with the #31
\n car securing a well-earned third place. Right behind, Kelvin van der
\n Linde (RSA), Valentino Rossi (ITA), and Ahmad Al Harthy (OMA) finished
\n fourth in the #46 BMW M4 GT3 EVO.<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Comments after the race:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Andreas Roos (Head of BMW M Motorsport): “On the
\n Hypercar side, it was a tough weekend. After our first podium in FIA
\n WEC here a year ago, we had hoped for much more than ninth place.
\n Unfortunately, we had some bad luck during the race with yellow flags
\n and safety cars. On top of that, the #20 car received a drive-through
\n penalty. Ultimately, we also lacked that final bit of pace needed to
\n achieve a top result. I feel sorry for the #15 crew who were involved
\n in two collisions through no fault of their own. On the other side of
\n the garage, there is great joy over another podium for the BMW M4 GT3
\n EVO. Third and fourth places are the result of fantastic team
\n performances. Congratulations to Augusto Farfus, Timur Boguslavskiy,
\n and Yasser Shahin on the podium finish. Our goal now is to deliver a
\n strong season finale in Bahrain with all our cars.”<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Vincent Vosse (Team Principal, BMW M Team WRT):
\n “Looking at the Hypercars, it was a disappointing
\n weekend. Ultimately, the #20 car finished ninth. We had some bad luck
\n with the safety car, but that wasn\u2019t the end of the world. Even the
\n winning #35 Alpine had a drive-through penalty. It was all about being
\n in the right place at the right time. Congratulations to the Alpine
\n crew on their first FIA WEC victory. As for us, the #15 car was
\n heavily damaged after Raffaele Marciello\u2019s crash. It seems the car in
\n front of him suddenly slowed down due to technical issues, and he
\n couldn\u2019t avoid the accident. The third and fourth places in the LMGT3
\n class were achieved thanks to our fantastic teamwork. We didn\u2019t have
\n the best pace, but we did a flawless job.”<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Robin Frijns (BMW M Team WRT, #20 Shell BMW M Hybrid V8, 9th
\n place): “A tough weekend. From the first practice
\n session, we didn\u2019t have the pace we had hoped for. We managed to
\n improve, but in the end, we weren\u2019t fast enough. In qualifying, we
\n definitely overperformed with fifth place thanks to a fantastic lap by
\n Sheldon. In the race, we had a bit of bad luck and a drive-through
\n penalty, but we were still in a decent position. However, we couldn\u2019t
\n hold onto it due to our lack of pace.”<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Raffaele Marciello (BMW M Team WRT, #15 BMW M Hybrid V8, DNF):
\n “It\u2019s very unfortunate that we had to end the race this
\n way. I\u2019m curious about the outcome of the investigation into my crash.
\n Overall, it was a tough weekend, and we lacked some pace. Still, after
\n the early contact, we made up ground in the race and could have scored
\n some points, especially since several cars ahead of us had penalties
\n or incidents. Now we\u2019re focusing on the season finale in Bahrain.”<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Augusto Farfus (The Bend Team WRT, #31 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, 3rd
\n place): “Given the pace we had this weekend, we didn\u2019t
\n expect to move so far forward in the race but we did an excellent job.
\n We had to overcome a few hurdles, but the team handled them
\n brilliantly. The car was much better in the race than in qualifying.
\n The podium feels very rewarding.”<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Timur Boguslavskiy (The Bend Team WRT, #31 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, 3rd
\n place): “We\u2019re very happy with this podium. We weren\u2019t
\n the fastest in the race, but we still earned third place. We were
\n close in Austin, and this time it finally worked out. I\u2019m not entirely
\n satisfied with my own performance, but Augusto and Yasser did an
\n amazing job.”<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Yasser Shahin (The Bend Team WRT, #31 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, 3rd
\n place): “What a fantastic race result.\u00a0 We really
\n didn\u2019t think we had a chance but a great drive from all three drivers
\n and all the right strategy calls delivered today.”<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Kelvin van der Linde (Team WRT, #46 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, 4th
\n place): “Third and fourth places are a very good team
\n result. This race marks the end of four extremely busy weeks. A podium
\n in Austin, a podium here, plus wins in Suzuka and Valencia \u2013 it\u2019s been
\n an incredibly successful month for the team and for me personally. I\u2019m
\n proud of the entire crew.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fuji. Second place in Austin (USA), third place in Fuji (JPN): the BMW M4 GT3 EVO continues its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[34115,114,34118,34114,34117,85,46,34116],"class_list":["post-42849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-bmw-m-motorsport","tag-business","tag-customer-racing","tag-fia-wec","tag-gt-racing","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-lmdh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}