BACK-TO-BACK CLASS VICTORY AND OVERALL PODIUM FOR TEAM WRT'S SILVER ENTRY IN MAGNY-COURS, AND HEARTBREAK FOR BMW M TEAM WRT AT ROAD AMERICA

Team WRT kicked off August with a double header: four BMW M4 GT3 EVOs lined up for the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint round in Magny-Cours, whilst BMW M Team WRT’s  BMW M Hybrid V8 duo took on the Motul Sportscar Endurance Grand Prix at Road America, in Wisconsin as part of the IMSA Series.

The highlight of the weekend came from the young Silver Cup duo of Ignacio Montenegro and Matisse Lismont, who scored a double class victory with a P2 overall on Sunday. In the US, both cars showed strong pace throughout much of the race, leading with a 40-seconds gap after 3h, but late technical issues denied them from the results they deserved.

Magny-Cours highlights

In the heart of France, Magny-Cours hosted a hot weekend for the third round of the GT World Sprint Cup. The #30 set the tone in race one which ran into the night, with Nacho and Matisse leading the Silver Cup under the lights. The #46 and #32 recovered from a difficult qualifying to finish sixth and seventh, while the #31 had the toughest task of all: starting last after track-limits penalties during qualifying and fought back to 20th.

It was a rollercoaster Sunday for the #32. Kelvin van der Linde secured pole position in qualifying, but the car was later disqualified after post-session checks found it had exceeded the permitted boost pressure due to an incorrect atmospheric pressure setting. As a result, the crew dropped to 44th on the grid.Kelvin recovered to 22nd before contact with a rival ended the race in the gravel. A few minutes later, another incident brought out a red flag. The #30, meanwhile, timed a perfect undercut to climb from 14th to 2nd overall for its fourth Silver Cup win of the season, with the #31 and #46 rounding out the weekend in 11th and 9th. The overall championship lead stays with Van der Linde and Weerts despite the setback, while the young duo increased their Silver Cup standings lead.

Road America highlights

For the Road America round in Wisconsin, BMW M Motorsport unveiled a special Spider-Man: Brand New Day livery for Sheldon van der Linde and Dries Vanthoor's BMW M Hybrid V8, while sister car #25, shared by Philipp Eng and Marco Wittmann, ran its usual colours. The #24 started from third on the grid, while the #25 lined up 10th in GTP after its fastest qualifying lap was cancelled for causing a red flag in FP2.

The opening stages of the six-hour enduro were promising for both cars, with the #24 building a strong lead and the #25 fighting through the field despite a drive-through penalty for pit lane speeding at the start of the third hour. But the final 90 minutes proved tougher, with technical issues hitting both crews. Brake issues force the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 to retire, while a cooling problem drops the sister car back to seventh place.

After a very busy first half of the 2026 season, it is time for a summer break, before GT World returns to the Nürburgring at the end of August, WEC heads to Texas for the 6 Hours of COTA and IMSA heads to Indianapolis for the Battle on the Bricks.