Engel emotional, Martin and Grenier stunned after Bathurst breakthrough

MARO Engel tried, and tried, and tried, and tried, and tried, and tried, and tried, and tried, and tried.

Today, it finally happened: victory in the Meguiar's Bathurst 12 Hour.

The #888 Team GMR Mercedes-AMG came from the heavens to take out a barely believable 2026 race, having started from 29th following a qualifying disaster.

Maxime Martin took the lead in the final hour after a dramatic collision between 2025 winner Kelvin van der Linde and three-time winner Jules Gounon.

By the end of Sunday, Martin, Engel and Mikael Grenier were all first time winners, with Engel finally vanquishing his Mount Panorama demons after years of outs.

"I've waited a long time for this," Engel said.

"It's every bit as special as I think it would be. It's amazing. It's not at all the weekend and the run plan we had planned, lots of improvisation, starting obviously with qualifying, but the end result, we won the race.

"So happy, big thank you to Mercedes-AMG Team GMR, to my fantastic teammates. They drove their hearts out, Mikael and Maxime."

Starting 29th, the #888 had it all to do, but avoided a carnage-filled and Safety Car-ridden race to emerge victorious, claiming Mercedes-AMG's first victory since 2023.

"It's amazing. I mean, to be honest, starting the weekend, I don't think we expected to win," said Martin, who crashed out of the 2025 race.

"But the last restart, I was just patient, they went quite hot. My teammates, the team, we did zero mistakes, fantastic race and first victory for us three."

Grenier added: "We knew we would be in the game, but we never expected that.

Especially after qualifying because we had something with the engine and then we started almost from last. So we knew it would be a tough race.

"But we had some really good strategy calls. Maro and Maxime were amazing as always. It was a big fuel game the whole race, but we did it, so super nice."