BMW has an incredibly rich motorsport history and opened a new chapter last weekend at Donington Park, with two British Touring Car Championship wins for the new 330i M Sport – an excellent return to the championship for the 3 Series.
The five greatest BMW victories of all time
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To celebrate this landmark for the new car, we're looking at what we think are five of BMW's greatest victories from across motorsport.
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2018 Saudi Arabia ePrix
Formula E is the place to be right now, and BMW joined the all-electric race series at the start of the 2018/19 season. It was an impressive debut for the team as Antonio Felix da Costa took pole position (the first of his Formula E career). Keen to build on his excellent performance, Da Costa battled right down to the last lap, keeping a charging Jean-Eric Vergne at bay, to take BMW's first win on their debut as a Formula E manufacturer.
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1999 24 Hours of Le Mans
BMW's only overall victory at Le Mans came in 1999 thanks to the BMW V12 LMR. Powered by a BMW engine and with a chassis from Williams F1, this monstrous machine combined economy and speed to take the win – Joachim Winkelhock, Pierluigi Martini and Yannick Dalmas finished a lap ahead of the competition. The car was slated to put out around 580bhp, leading to a speed of 342km/h down the famous Mulsanne Straight.
Impressive, considering that during the 2018 Le Mans 24 Hours, the winning Toyota TS050 managed to clock in at 342.3km/h.
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1981 Paris-Dakar Rally
The third running of the now infamous Paris-Dakar saw French rally legend Hubert Auriol take BMW's first victory in the gruelling race on a BMW R 80 G/S. Though that was just the start for the German brand. Auriol won again in '83 before BMW sent a factory team and Belgian rider Gaston Rahier to victory in '84 and '85.
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2008 Canadian Grand Prix
There are plenty of Formula One races we could have picked, but the Canadian Grand Prix of 2008 had it all: great racing, a severely degrading race track and a, let's call it interesting, shunt in the pitlane. Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld overcame everything the race had to throw at them to score BMW-Sauber's first one-two finish. That win was also the first for a German constructor since the 1962 French Grand Prix and the first win for a BMW engine since the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix.
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2015 DTM, Zandvoort
So this is technically two races, but should still make this list. The 2015 DTM season got off to a rocky start for BMW, but Zandvoort brought results by the bucketload. Not only did Augusto Farfus and Antonio Felix da Costa claim pole positions in both qualifying sessions, but the manufacturer went on to claim first through seventh in race one, and first through fifth in race two. They may have remained third in the constructor's championship at that point, but this dominance helped BMW on their way to defend the manufacturer's championship.
And finally, there's an honourable mention for this year's 24 Hours of Daytona. BMW claimed the GTLM class win, but it was the sister car grabbing the people's attention, thanks to Alex Zanardi. The Italian's return to Stateside racing inspired fans around the world, and though he didn't win on the track, he won plenty of hearts that weekend.
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