Mercedes-AMG Motorsport celebrates another great success at the 12h of Bathurst, the first event of the season of the Intercontinental GT Challenge.
A week after its success in Daytona, the House of the Star is also on the first step of the podium in Australia with the #75 AMG GT3 of Sun Energy 1 driven by Kenny Habul, Jules Gounon and Luca Stolz.
In a very heated finale, the trio beat the Porsche #912 of Manthey EMA driven by Matt Campbell, Mathieu Jaminet and Thimas Preining, while the podium was completed by Maro Engel, Mikael Grenier and Raffaele Marciello in the Mercedes #999 of GruppeM which had started from Pole Position.
The best BMW M4 of Team WRT is fourth thanks to Van Der Linde/Weerts/Vanthoor (#32), while at its debut on Mount Panorama, Valentino Rossi on the #46 shared with Augusto Farfus and Maxime Martin finishes in sixth position.
Action on the track
Photo by: Bathurst 12H
3rd HOUR: Van Gisbergen immediately in front with the Mercedes
Shane Van Gisbergen in the #888 Supercheap Auto Racing Mercedes immediately found himself in a fight with Campbell’s #912 Porsche after 3 hours. Poleman Maro Engel had a good start chased by Maxi Goetz’s Mercedes in the #888, Preining, Stolz and Farfus.
This quintet detached from the group during the eight opening laps, so much so that after 25′ the Audi #65 of Liam Talbot (MPC) was sixth at 20″, chased by the Mercedes-Craft Bamboo of Phil Ellis and the BMW-WRT of Dries Vanthoor However, just before the half hour mark, Vanthoor took seventh place and, shortly after the 30 minute mark he also took sixth.
Meanwhile, the Mercedes-Valmont Racing of Duvashen Padayache hit Christopher Haase’s Audi, damaging the rear and sending the R8 into the wall. Frédéric Vervisch in the Audi-Fuchs and the Bend Motorsport Park Mercedes with Ricardo Feller overtaking Talbot and Ellis on lap 15 to move up to seventh and eighth respectively, but Feller then passed Vervisch as well to take the Class lead PRO-AM.
In the lead, after 50 minutes, Engel detached Goetz by 4″5, who in turn brought the lead over Priening, Stolz and Farfus to 1″5. Vervisch was the first Top10 driver to pit, on lap 29. Feller and Ellis. The former passed the baton to Yasser Shahin, the latter remained in the car. Vanthoor rejoined on lap 33, followed by Wall and Talbot. Talbot handed the wheel to Chaz Mostert, but unfortunately the Supercars ace crossed the pit exit line while he was struggling with cold tires, and was handed a Drive-Through penalty.
Goetz stopped on lap 34 5″5 seconds behind Engel, followed by Prening to give space to Jaminet. When Engel stopped the following lap, Grenier took the lead in the #999 Mercedes and then 9″.
Jaminet passed Habul for third place. Mostert’s comeback after the penalty was incredible enough to bring him to 10th place. Jaminet began to get closer to Grenier and Goetz, then another round of pit stops inaugurated by Vervisch which gave way to Brad Schumacher. After a couple of hours before Safety Car for the exit of Stephen Grove in the Porsche at the Skyline. Grenier stopped and stayed on board, Van Gisbergen replaced Goetz and Campbell took over from Jaminet, while Valentino Rossi made his debut on the #46 BMW.
Grenier returned to the track ahead of Van Gisbergen, Campbell, Rossi, Weerts and Habul. On lap 63 the go-ahead and Campbell overtook Van Gisbergen, with Talbot moving up to sixth.
#888 Supercheap Auto Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: Shane Van Gisbergen, Broc Feeney, Maximilian Götz
Photo by: Bathurst 12H
6th HOUR: switch to SunEnergy1 command
The second quarter of the race got underway with a fascinating lead battle between Van Gisbergen and Campbell until halfway through the 3rd hour when the Safety Car made its second appearance of the day following contact between the #44 Mercedes of Valmont Racing and Supaarn’s #47 Audi at the Skyline. This resulted in a series of stops for much of the field, Manthey EMA opting for a shorter fuel-up to help Preining take the lead from Van Gisbergen.
Green flag after 15′ and Preining took the lead, gaining two seconds on Van Gisbergen, who however took him back immediately chased by Farfus, Engel and Van Der Linde, but in 10′ another SC for the KO of Fabian Schiller at the ‘Hell Corner’ with the #19 Mercedes GT4 of Nineteen Corporatio. The only ones back in the pits were the #75 SunEnergy1 Racing and #77 Craft-Bamboo Mercedes.
At the 4th hour the restart and Preining extended again, while Van Gisbergen found himself under pressure from Farfus, in turn aimed by Engel; they even lined up touching each other, but the German ran too wide and allowed Van der Linde to squeeze past and climb fourth.
Farfus started putting Van Gisbergen in his sights, but he managed to re-establish a small margin on the BMW until 4h40′, when the #888 was the first of the leading group to make a fourth stop. Broc Feeney took over the car, then it was the turn of the first three to rejoin. Rossi returned to the #46 from third, while Vanthoor moved to the #32.
Coming back, Engel managed to pass the two BMWs, as did Daniel Juncadella in the #77 Mercedes when he pitted several laps later, with Gounon first in the #75 with a 10″ margin over Jaminet and Feeney, who in the meantime pitted just before six hours, when Marciello moved up to third ahead of Juncadella, Vanthoor and Rossi.
#912 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3R: Matt Campbell, Mathieu Jaminet, Thomas Preining
Photo by: Bathurst 12H
9th HOUR: GruppeM climbs to the top
After the 6th hour and another whirlwind of stops, the Mercedes #888 lost contact with the Porsche #912 after the battle in the first half of the race. Feeney dropped to about 30″ from Campbell, while the gap from the leader Gounon increased to almost a minute, with the Frenchman keeping Marciello behind at 17″.
SC entered for the fifth time via Scott Taylor, a block at ‘The Dipper’. SunEnergy1 opted to leave Gounon out, while the rest of the front field headed to the pits. The #912 Porsche was able to jump ahead of the #999 Mercedes during the stops, with Preining and Engel in the car.
Van Gisbergen got into the #888 Mercedes, Ellis stayed in the #77, Van Der Linde got into the #32 BMW and Martin took the seat in the #46. Restart only after 7h15′, with Gounon who immediately gained a small advantage over Preining, while Van Gisbergen struggled losing positions against Ellis, Van Der Linde and Martin in a few corners.
Engel managed to recover second position, overtaking Preining and catching Gounon. The BMWs also had decent pace in this stint, with both cars managing to pass Ellis shortly after the restart. At the following stops, Gounon was replaced by Stolz, who rejoined in sixth position behind van Gisbergen, while Engel pulled away from Preining.
The German continued to command until the next series of stops, just before 8.30 am and Stolz regained the lead. Meanwhile the Mercedes #888 had a slow stop where the team had to tinker with the front end protection. Later a Drive-Through also came to be served as a crew member had adjusted the rear wing in the pit lane.
The gap between Stolz and Marciello remained unchanged, then the German returned to the pits at the stroke of nine hours and ‘Lello’ remained in the lead with a 25″ lead over Jaminet, in turn followed by Vanthoor, Stolz , Farfus, Goetz and Nicky Catsburg in the #77 Mercedes by Craft-Bamboo #77
#999 GruppeM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: Maro Engel, Mikael Grenier, Raffaele Marciello
Photo by: Bathurst 12H
12th HOUR: Mercedes triumph with thrill
The last quarter of the race began with Marciello leading by 25″ over Jaminet and 45″ over the Mercedes #75 of Sun Energy 1. Just at the stroke of 9h25′, the BMW #46 of WRT was forced to stop early for carbon buildup on the rear of the car; the stewards told the crew they had to clear the dirt so the taillights would be visible, which was done in the garage.
Ten minutes later, the rest of the leading group started making their pit stops and Stolz retook the lead with a 35″ margin on the #999 and Campbell third with Van Der Linde behind. With just over two hours to go, Stolz gave way when he pitted and swapped with Gounon, who dropped to third behind Campbell with a 42″ margin over new leader Marciello.
Only in the last 90 minutes did Gounon begin to make progress, getting within 3″ of Campbell, while the gap from Marciello dropped to just over 30″.
At the same time, a big joke for the Mercedes #999 of GruppeM, which was forced to replace the transponder – supplied by the race direction – due to a fault and therefore grappling with a longer final stop which allowed Gounon to take the lead. Engel’s desperate attempt to get back into the lead meant that the two collided at ‘The Chase’ with 45′ to go and the German got a drive-through.
The Frenchman repulsed Campbell’s last assault by taking an incredible victory, the second in a row for Sun Energy 1 Racing and for Habul and Stolz.
Campbell, Jaminet and Preining finished in second place, while Engel, Marciello and Grenier completed the podium, at the foot of which we find the BMW-WRT #32 and the Mercedes #888 in the Top5. Rossi-Farfus-Martin finished sixth with the #46.
In the PRO-AM Class, the Audi #65 of the Melbourne Performance Center won in the hands of Chaz Mostert, Fraser Ross and Liam Talbot, seventh overall.
In the Silver Class, the Audi #10 of International Motorsports dominated by Andrew Fawcet, Dylan O’Keeffe and Daniel Gaunt.
#46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3: Augusto Farfus, Maxime Martin, Valentino Rossi
Photo by: Bathurst 12H
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