The FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) held their third round of the year this past weekend of May 10, 2025, with a six-hour race at the Spa-Franchorchamps circuit in Belgium. It was a home race for BMW M Team WRT, who hoped to keep their momentum up after being on the podium in both the Hypercar and LMGT3 classes in the previous race at Imola. Unfortunately, the best finish of any of the four BMWs in the Spa race was an eighth place.
Since the WEC round at Spa conflicted with the IMSA race at Laguna Seca, BMW M Team WRT went with two drivers per car in their Hypercar entries at Spa, rather than the usual three. Kevin Magnussen and Raffaele Marciello drove the #15 M Hybrid V8, and Robin Frijns and René Rast were paired in the #20. In LMGT3, Augusto Farfus, Timur Boguslavskiy and Yasser Shahin shared the #31 M4 GT3 EVO, while Kelvin van der Linde, Valentino Rossi and Ahmad Al Harthy shared the #46 car.
Ferrari made an emphatic statement in qualifying that they were the car to beat at Spa, qualifying 1-2-3 in the Hypercar class. The fastest BMW in Hypercar was the #20 qualified by Robin Frijns in eighth, though he was less than a half-second off the pole time of the #50 Ferrari. The #15 M Hybrid V8 qualified in eleventh, just out of the top ten. The M4 GT3 EVO entries were well off the qualifying pace in LMGT3, with the #46 setting the ninth fastest time, nearly two seconds off the pole time of the #78 Lexus. The #31 M4 GT3 EVO qualified in twelfth.
In the race, the BMW M Hybrid V8s showed they could be competitive, but both were ultimately taken out of contention with penalties and reliability issues. Magnussen had a great start in the #15 to move from eleventh to fifth in the opening stages, as he was the only driver to start on the softer compound Michelin tires. Unfortunately, that car also received a double drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane and a virtual safety car infringement, which dropped it back to finish tenth.
The #20 Hypercar of Frijns and Marciello had a good race going as it moved up through the field and was in contention for a podium finish until a brake issue forced the team to retire it due to safety issues. Ferrari finished 1-2 in the Hypercar class, with the win going to the #51 car followed by the #50 sister car in second. Rounding out the podium was the #36 Alpine, which has Michael Schumacher’s son Mick as one of the drivers.
Things didn’t go any better in LMGT3. The M4 GT3 EVO entries just didn’t have the pace of the frontrunners in the class. The #46 car of Rossi, Al Harthy and van der Linde finished ninth and the #31 car had to retire in the second hour after contact with another car resulted in suspension damage. Ferrari also won the LMGT3 class, with the #21 AF Corse entry getting the win.
BMW M Team WRT Team Principal Vincent Vosse hopes to come back stronger in the next race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France on the weekend of June 14th-15th. “A disappointing weekend overall,” he said. “At some stages, it looked like we could fight for a podium, but, in the end, that wasn’t the case. Car #20 was forced to retire due to what looks like brake issues. As for car #15, two drive-through penalties made it impossible to aim for a stronger result. In LMGT3, it was also a tough outcome. Car #31 retired early after being involved in an incident, which was very disappointing. With car #46, we maximized what we could with the pace we had, but it wasn’t enough to fight for the podium. We took a strategic gamble, but, unfortunately, it didn’t pay off. We’ll analyse, we’ll learn, and we’ll come back stronger.”
—David Haueter
[Photos courtesy BMW]
