Determinedly facing up to a challenging start to their weekend at the 2025 Nürburgring 24 Hours, ROWE Racing’s BMW M works driver squad consisting of Kelvin van der Linde, Augusto Farfus, Jesse Krohn, and Raffaele Marciello found themselves starting 17th overall on the grid when their #98 BMW M4 GT3 EVO missed out on the top qualifying session. For his part, Farfus made a brilliant start under ideal weather conditions, charging into the top 10 on the opening lap itself. An unfortunate paddock power outage caused a red flag period stretching over 2 hours & 15 minutes, then van der Linde stormed their M4 GT3 EVO up the order from P9 to P3 within only 2 laps once the race restarted.
Marciello and Krohn subsequently strengthened their car’s podium ranked position, driving consistently without fault through the night, while holding P2 and building a comfortable advantage over their trailing competitors. The #98 BMW then closed its 2+ minute gap to the leader as dawn broke over the Nordschleife, with the race becoming a true ‘Green Hell’ thriller into the morning hours. Once they handed the driving back to Farfus, he went on to take the lead for ROWE Racing.
With a contact incident resulting in a penalty for the competing #911 Porsche 911 GT3 R, this put the #98 BMW strongly on course for its victory clinched by van der Linde after the full 24 hours. Manthey EMA’s protest against the penalty was ultimately dismissed, ensuring ROWE Racing’s victory despite taking the chequered flag after the Porsche. Satisfyingly for van der Linde, this was his third overall 24 Hours of Nürburgring win after triumphs in 2017 and 2022, while being his first victory for BMW M Motorsport. The latter milestone was one he celebrated with Marciello in front of the record 280,000-strong crowd.
This would also be Krohn’s first ever 24h Nürburgring victory, and the second for Farfus after a 15-year wait. Having the most race wins here of any manufacturer, BMW last triumphed a half decade ago in 2020 when the ROWE Racing M6 GT3 also claimed its time in the sun.
