#32 BMW draws first blood at Bathurst, early dramas for #888 Mercedes

W Racing Team and BMW have drawn first blood at the 2026 Meguiar's Bathurst 12 Hour.

Through the first 40-minute practice session of the event, held under cool, overcast skies at Mount Panorama, the #32 BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Charles Weerts/Kelvin van der Linde/Jordan Pepper led the way.

Weerts set the ultimate pace with a 2:03.8685s in the closing minutes, leading home the #222 STM Mercedes-AMG of Supercars drivers Cam Waters/Chaz Mostert/Thomas Randle.

Four brands filled the top four, with the #268 Team BRM Audi third after a strong effort by Alex Peroni, while Matt Campbell moved the #911 Absolute Porsche to fourth in the dying seconds.

The session wasn't without incident, though, the Maxime Martin limping the #888 Mercedes-AMG Team GMR entry back to the pits early with a puncture. The #888 ended up 26th.

Van der Linde put the #32 BMW on the pace straight away, turning in consecutive fastest laps of 2:10.9234s, 2:07.4630s and 2:05.3918s.

The sister #46 BMW of Farfus lowered the number to a 2:05.0714s, as Martin limped the #888 Mercedes-AMG back to pit lane with the puncture.

Tony D’Alberto went into the 2:04s in the #93 Lamborghini with a 2:04.7392s, before Lee Holdsworth went even quicker in the #9 Audi with a 2:04.5334s.

As the session wore on, the pace continued to rise. Kai Allen was a surprise pace-setter in the #100 Mercedes-AMG with a 2:04.3854s, before Cam Waters turned up the wick.

Aboard the #222 Mercedes-AMG, Waters clocked a 2:04.1558s to put nearly 0.3s on the field, with Alex Peroni slotting the #268 Audi into second with a 2:04.1610s.

Into the final 10 minutes, the #32 returned to the top at the hands of Weerts, who clocked the first 2:03s of the day, a 2:03.8685s.

The #64 HRT Ford was 18th, with the #2 JMR Corvette in 23rd.

Bronze drivers will return to the track for Practice 2 at 11:00am local time, followed by the all-in Practice 3 at 2:10pm, and another Bronze session at 4:40pm.