2026 Bathurst 12 Hour
Endurance race in Australia
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The 2026 Bathurst 12 Hour (commercially titled 2026 Meguiar's Bathurst 12 Hour[1]) was an endurance race for FIA GT3 cars and invited vehicles, staged at the Mount Panorama Circuit, Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia on 15 February 2026. It was the opening round of the 2026 Intercontinental GT Challenge.
| Event information | |
|---|---|
| Round 1 of 5 in the 2026 Intercontinental GT Challenge | |
| Date | 15 February 2026 |
| Location | Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia |
| Venue | Mount Panorama Circuit |
| Duration | 12 Hours |
| Results | |
| Laps completed | 262 |
| Distance | 1,627.806 km (1,011.472 mi) |
| Pole position | |
| Time | 2:01.079 |
| Team | |
| Drivers | |
| Winners | |
| Time | 12:01:39.898 |
| Team | |
| Drivers | |
The race was marred by the first red flag in nearly a decade.[2] Tsunami RT's Johannes Zelger in the GT3 Bronze class was involved in an incident with Volante Rosso Motorsport's Damien Hamilton in the GT3 Pro-Am class at Forrest’s Elbow. While the incident was minor, both Zelger and Hamilton were stopped in the turn. Team Craft-Bamboo Racing's Ralf Aron was leading the GT3 Pro field as they approached Forrest’s Elbow. Aron would end up colliding into Zelger's car at nearly full speed. The race was red flagged within a minute and was stopped for nearly an hour.[3]
Aron would end up crawling out of his car and was transported to a regional hospital.[4][5] The incident was criticized for a lack of flags giving warning in the run up to the stoppage at Forrest’s Elbow.[6][7][4][2]
Entry list
Class structure
Entries were divided into classes based on car type and driver ratings.
- Class A – GT3 (Current Specification FIA GT3 cars)
- Pro – No Driver Restrictions
- Pro-Am – For driving combinations featuring one or two FIA Platinum, FIA Gold, or FIA Silver and two FIA Bronze related drivers.
- Silver Cup – For driving combinations featuring only FIA Silver and Bronze drivers.
- Bronze – For driving combinations featuring one Platinum or Gold, one Silver and one Bronze driver.
- Class B – Porsche Cup
- Class for Porsche GT3 Cup from One-make racing series.
- Class C – GT4 (Current Specification SRO GT4 cars)
- Class I – Invitational class
- For IRC GT cars, SRO GT2 cars and other special GT cars.
Entries
Results
Practice
| Session | Day | Fastest Lap | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Ref | ||
| Practice 1 | Friday | 32 | BMW M4 GT3 Evo | 2:03.869 | [31] | ||
| Practice 2[a] | 45 | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 2:05.318 | [32] | |||
| Practice 3 | 55 | Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 2:03.899 | [33] | |||
| Practice 4[a] | 75 | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 2:04.906 | [34] | |||
| Practice 5 | Saturday | 55 | Audi R8 LMS Evo II | 2:03.040 | [35] | ||
| Practice 6 | 222 | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 2:02.357 | [36] | |||
Qualifying
Top 10 Shootout
| Pos. | Class | No. | Driver | Team | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 222 | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | 2:01.0790 | ||
| 2 | P | 77 | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | +0.1770 | ||
| 3 | P | 75 | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | +0.2154 | ||
| 4 | P | 911 | Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) | +0.2308 | ||
| 5 | P | 55 | Audi R8 LMS Evo II | +0.4645 | ||
| 6 | B | 93 | Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2 | +0.6706 | ||
| 7 | P | 46 | BMW M4 GT3 Evo | +0.7942 | ||
| 8 | PA | 44 | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | +0.8512 | ||
| 9 | P | 64 | Ford Mustang GT3 | +0.8703 | ||
| 10 | P | 6 | Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo | +1.0444 | ||
| Source:[38] | ||||||
Race
Class winners indicated in bold and with ‡.
- Fastest race lap: 2:02.3071 – Nicky Catsburg on lap 204
Notes
- Session was for FIA Bronze categorised drivers only.