Stolz Leaves It Late to Set Practice 6 Pace for SunEnergy1

SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG driver Luca Stolz set the fastest lap of the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour event so far in the final practice session before qualifying.

Stolz produced a last-ditch time of 2:02.433 in the No. 75 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo that he shares with Jules Gounon and Kenny Habul, beating Porsche driver Matt Campbell’s previous weekend benchmark by three-tenths of a second.

Maro Engel led most of the hourlong Practice 6 session for Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing until Stolz burst through right at the end.

Engel settled for second on a time of 2:02.618 that the German driver posted a few minutes after the halfway mark.

Behind the Mercedes-AMG one-two result sat the No. 65 Melbourne Performance Centre Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II driven by Chaz Mostert, who emerged at the sharp end with a qualifying preparation run with seven minutes to go.

Mathieu Jaminet ranked fourth for Porsche squad Manthey EMA, ahead of the Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMGs driven by Broc Feeney and Richie Stanaway respectively.

Mostert ended up topping the Pro-Am class, while Tony D’Alberto led the Silver category in Wall Racing’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo in eighth position overall.

All 25 cars took part in the session, although the Daytona Sports Cars Sin R1 had an accident in the oepning minutes that caused a red flag. The Invitational-class competitor had an accident at Skyline, losing two of its wheels in the process.

The first part of qualifying begins at 12:45 p.m. local (8:45 p.m. Friday ET) while the pole-deciding sessions start at 4:10 p.m. (12:10 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Practice 6