The No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8 started 11th on the grid at Spa-Francorchamps. It didn’t even make Hyperpole. Six hours later, Robin Frijns, Rene Rast, and Sheldon van der Linde were spraying champagne after delivering BMW its first victory in the top class of global sports car racing since the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1999.
That’s a 27-year gap. And it took a fuel strategy nobody else had the nerve to try.
Stuck in Hypercar traffic early, the BMW M Team WRT crew made the call to pit short and under-fuel, pulling Rast out of the pack and into clean air. The gamble paid immediately. While the rest of the field averaged 24 to 25 laps per stint, the No. 20 stretched to 26.
Stint after stint, the advantage compounded. By the time a safety car bunched the field with two hours remaining, the BMW was already in command.
The sister No. 15 car, driven by Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello, and Dries Vanthoor, climbed from 10th to join its teammate on the podium. From a combined starting position of 10th and 11th, BMW doubled its entire Hypercar podium count in a single afternoon.
Then came the final hour, and Spa turned into a demolition derby.
The No. 51 Ferrari AF Corse was obliterated when the No. 32 BMW plowed into its right side, ending Alessandro Pier Guidi’s race in an instant. The restart lasted barely long enough for anyone to get their tires warm before Alex Riberas in the No. 009 Aston Martin Valkyrie lost it on an overtake attempt, launching through the grass and into the barrier while running sixth. Debris scattered across the track.
When the field went green again with minutes left, the No. 25 Alpine locked up and spun from fifth. Chaos on every restart.
Through all of it, Magnussen drove the defensive stint of his life. Antonio Fuoco in the No. 50 Ferrari had four fresh tires and was glued to the BMW’s gearbox, never more than a few tenths back. Magnussen gave him nothing.
The Dane spent a decade in Formula 1 building a reputation as a driver who would not yield an inch, and he brought every bit of that stubbornness to the Ardennes on Saturday. He hadn’t stood on a podium in any series since 2021. This one he earned with his elbows.
“It couldn’t have been written better,” Magnussen said afterward. “A 1-2 BMW at the home track of WRT. This crew has worked their ass off the last couple of years. There’s going to be a lot of beer floating around today.”
Ferrari settled for third with Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen, and Miguel Molina. The Aston Martin No. 007, with Tom Gamble hustling past Toyota for fourth, came agonizingly close to the Valkyrie’s first WEC podium but ran out of laps. Toyota’s Kamui Kobayashi brought the No. 7 home fifth.
Cadillac’s day was the mirror image of BMW’s. The No. 12 V-Series.R led early after Will Stevens grabbed first on the opening lap from the pole-sitting Peugeot. Then a questionable call for soft tires late in the race destroyed its pace, and Norman Nato slid backward through the field as a potential victory dissolved into a pointless ninth.
Genesis Magma Racing, in only its second WEC start, finished eighth with Pipo Derani holding off Nato’s fading Cadillac on worn rubber. Not a bad calling card for a program still in diapers.
BMW now leads the World Endurance Championship Hypercar standings for the first time in four seasons. The M Hybrid V8 arrived in 2024 as a project full of promise and short on results. Two podiums in two years suggested the car had speed but not consistency.
Saturday’s 1-2 suggests BMW and WRT have finally figured out how to convert raw pace into race wins. Le Mans is five weeks away. The competition has been put on notice.
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