Mercedes-AMGs Lock Out Top Three on Bathurst Grid

Mercedes-AMG teams annexed the top three positions on the grid for this weekend’s Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour, as Cam Waters topped the Pirelli Pole Battle to put the No. 222 Scott Taylor Motorsport car on pole position for the Australian enduro.

Having led the way in the final practice session and the first segment of qualifying earlier on Saturday, Waters continued his form as he set a best lap of 2:01.079 in the 15-minute session that decided the top ten grid spots for the Intercontinental GT Challenge opener.

That lap initially put the No. 222 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo more than three tenths up on the field, but Lucas Auer — the only driver to have made it to the Pole Battle from Q1 — cut the deficit to 0.177 seconds to grab second on the grid for Craft-Bamboo Racing.

Luca Stolz put the 75 Express Mercedes-AMG third with a lap 0.215 seconds off the pace, with a last-ditch attempt to improve on that time not bearing fruit.

Best of the rest behind the Mercedes-AMGs was the No. 911 Absolute Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R as Matt Campbell left it late to jump to fourth ahead of the Jamec Racing/Team MPC Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II driven by Christopher Haase.

Wall Racing’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, which was already confirmed as the Bronze class pole winner heading into the session, was sixth in the hands of Marco Mapelli ahead of Raffaele Marciello in the No. 46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO.

Rounding off the top ten order were Scott Andrews in the No. 44 Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG, the only Pro-Am car to make the Pole Battle, the HRT Ford Mustang GT3 of Broc Feeney and Jayden Ojeda in the No. 6 Tigani machine.

The Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour is scheduled to begin Sunday 5:45 a.m. local time (Saturday 1:45 p.m. ET).

RESULTS: Pirelli Pole Battle