Mercedes fastest in Qualifying for Bathurst 12 Hour in chaotic, red-flagged session
- Owen Bradley
- 15 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Written by Owen Bradley
Mercedes dominated qualifying for the Bathurst 12 hour, with five cars making it into the Top 10 shootout, along with MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi, amidst a chaotic, red-flagged Qualifying session for the first round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge in Australia.
Qualifying inside the Top 10 is absolutely vital around Mount Panorama's Bathurst circuit, with the team starting from 4th place, taking victory at the last few iterations of the Bathurst 12 Hour.
The last team to win from outside of the Top 10, was the No.7 Bentley team consisting of Jules Gounon, Jordan Pepper and Maxime Soulet. The team started from 11th place and came through to take a dominant victory, winning by 30-seconds.
Qualifying 1
After an initial report of light rain around the Bathurst circuit, the clouds cleared as the cars took to the track at full speed.
Lauren Heinrich set the pace early on aboard the No.61 Porsche, almost a full second faster than most of the cars behind, before Lucas Auer put the No.77 Mercedes to the top of the leaderboard with a 2:01.972.
Meanwhile, Maro Engel struggled in the No.888 Mercedes, setting a 2:06.300, over four seconds down on the fastest time in Q1. Speaking about the poor qualifying result, missing out on the pole position shootout, Engel said: "Unfortunately we had a power related issue. We'll find the issue no doubt, dust ourselves off and get ready for tomorrow."
Notably, the No.2 Corvette driven by Earl Bamber, only managed to set a 2:03.059, putting them eighth fastest in the session and making their chances of reaching the shootout, much more difficult, despite a star-studded lineup, with Alexander Sims and Nicky Catsburg joining Bamber aboard the Corvette.
Qualifying 2
Cameron Waters set the pace in Q2, immediately going quicker than Auer's time in Q1 by about one tenth of a second. Further into the session, more drivers joined Waters and Auer inside the 2:01.000's, following a red flag midway through the session.
Just eight minutes into the session, the No.100 Mercedes lost it's left rear tyre coming out of the pit lane, bringing out the red flag and putting the session to a complete halt. Many teams had not been able to set a competitive lap time at this point during the session, which resulted in a busy track towards the end of the session.
Whilst Luca Stolz took to the circuit for the No.75 Mercedes squad, teammate Jules Gounon, commented on his friend Max Verstappen's interest in the Bathurst 12 Hour. Gounon stated: "I'm sure he's watching, he loves GT racing, he's a big motorsport fan and he loves this place."
Verstappen has shown a large amount of interest in GT racing, and it has been heavily rumoured that the Dutchman will compete in the Intercontinental GT Challenge's second round at the Nürburgring 24 Hours in May.
The final few runs from each of the cars in Q2 were hectic, with multiple drivers getting themselves inside the 2:01:000's. In the end, only one car from Q1, qualified for the Top 10 shootout.
Kelvin van der Linde was notably unable to make it into the Top 10 shootout, with the South African only able to achieve a 2:02.036 aboard the No.32 WRT BMW. Meanwhile, the sister No.46 car driven by Raffaele Marciello, Valentino Rossi and Augusto Farfus - were able to qualify themselves for the shootout, setting a 2:01.963.
The No.100 Mercedes was able to re-join the session after their initial tyre mishap, and set a 2:02.786, putting themselves 21st on the grid for the race. Despite being around one second off the pace, it was incredibly impressive that the team were able to make it out for another run, after the earlier incident.
The Top 10 shootout is set to be electrifying and crucial, with Mercedes making up half of the cars in the shootout, the German manufacturer evidently has an advantage around Mount Panorama. Meanwhile, several of Australia's best drivers will make an attempt for pole, as MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi also puts himself in the mix for the top spot.
The Top 10 shootout gets underway at 05:15 time in the UK, which translates to 16:15 in Australia.
