Auer takes pole for Mercedes

Lucas Auer has taken pole place for the Bathurst 12 Hour for Mercedes.

The Austrian, who took provisional pole within the break up qualifying periods, lapped the Mount Panorama observe in a time of 2m01.2760s within the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo he’ll share with Maximilian Gotz and Jayden Ojeda.

After such an in depth first a part of qualifying by which the highest 5 vehicles have been break up by 0.136s, Auer’s hole of 0.125s over the remainder of the sphere was a comparatively dominant margin forward of one other Bathurst rookie in Ricardo Feller.

The 24-year-old Swiss led the Audi cost and he’ll begin second within the #183 Jamec Racing entry he’ll share with Supercars driver Broc Feeney and Australian GT champion Liam Talbot.

Maro Engel had an uncommon session on the way in which to 3rd on the grid, the two-time pole winner parking the #888 Crew GMR Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, which he shares with Mikael Grenier and Maxime Martin, as he didn’t set a lap time till the second half of the brief session.

Fourth place went to final yr’s polesitter Sheldon van der Linde within the first of the BMW M4 GT3s, the #32 which he co-drives along with his brother Kelvin van der Linde and Augusto Farfus.

Fifth was Supercars star Chaz Mostert within the #26 Come up Racing Ferrari, who simply made it into the highest 10 after the sooner qualifying periods.

Sixth got here the primary Porsche although it was not the one many have been anticipating, because it was Bathurst rookie Laurin Heinrich who was constantly the quickest of the 911 GT3 Rs within the #91 entry he shares with Morris Schuring and bronze drivers Sam and Yasser Shahin.

Final yr’s runner-up begins seventh following Luca Stolz’s effort within the #75 Specific Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, whereas eighth was a formidable effort from Scott Andrews, the Texas-domiciled Australian making his first begin within the occasion. He’ll share the #44 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II with crew regulars Marcel Zalloua and Sergio Pires.

Scott Taylor grabbed ninth within the #222 Motorsport Mercedes-AMG of Cam Waters/Thomas Randle/Craig Lowndes, forward of the third of the Audis, the #09 Lee Holdsworth/Dean Fiore/Marc Cini entry in tenth.

Whereas one Porsche will begin the race from near the entrance, the opposite extra fancied entry of Matt Campbell within the #911 Absolute Racing entry will begin from eleventh, after the defending race winner missed out on making the highest 10 in qualifying by 0.088s.

The opposite automobile that was anticipated to make the highest 10 however failed was the #46 WRT BMW, by which Raffaele Marciello appeared sturdy early within the first session, earlier than needed to pit early for his crew to analyze the automobile’s overheating difficulty so pale to twelfth place.

The 2025 Bathurst 12 Hour might be dwell on Motorsport.television.