Bentley Motorsport has taken overall victory with the Continental GT3 at the Bathurst 12 Hour.

The #7 Continental GT3 of Maxime Soulet (BEL), Jordan Pepper (ZAR) and Jules Gounon (FRA) dominated the opening round of the 2020 Intercontinental GT Challenge at Bathurst, sweeping to victory after starting P11.

The car moved quickly through the order into podium contention. World-class stints from Soulet, Pepper and Gounon, and strong strategy and pit stops from the team, moved the team into P1 for a total time of seven hours – with the car running flawlessly. A superb reactionary pit-stop just over an hour from the end to deal with a puncture was the final act from the team to set the car up for victory. Rain loomed while ambient temperatures exceeded 40°C, but after the half-day sprint the #7 Continental GT3 crossed the line as the winner of the Bathurst 12 Hour. As they took the chequered flag, the crew also set a new race distance record of 314 laps - before the heavens opened and the team rejoiced in the rain.

“What a weekend. Our crew has been pushed to its limits but shown that whatever racing throws at you, you must never give up. It’s been a long-deserved Intercontinental GT Challenge win for our Continental GT3 – we’ve been in contention many times, especially here at Bathurst, so it feels good to finally make it stick. It’s a great way to start our season and we hope it is a sign of things to come for our customer teams around the world as we embark on our largest motorsport programme to date.” — Paul Williams, Director of Motorsport, Bentley Motors.