Valentino Rossi impresses in Bathurst 12 Hours debut
The #46 BMW M4 that he shared with Maxime Martin and Augusto Farfus needed to repair a brake light, so was forced into their garage, with less than three hours remaining scuppering any hopes of a podium finish.
They return to the race in seventh and could only recover one place.
The other BMW M4 (Dries Vanthoor, Sheldon van der Linde and Charles Weerts) finished in P4.
Kenny Habul, Luca Stolz and Jules Gounon, representing SunEnergy1 and Mercedes-AMG, won the Bathurst 12 Hours.
They edged Manthey EMA and GruppeM Racing - the top three were separated by 1.5s.
Rossi, aged 43, was up in P3 at one stage but his trio couldn’t maintain that pace.
The motorcycle racing legend, who is starting his second season on four wheels, was returning to the country where he won six MotoGP races at Phillip Island.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
