Talbot, Grove Claim Bathurst Poles

Liam Talbot and Brenton Grove will start the respective Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia presented by AWS races at Mount Panorama from pole position, after a pair of frantic qualifying sessions that set the scene for this week’s season finale.

Talbot set the pace in the opening session under threatening skies, with the Coin Spot-sponsored Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo’s time of 2:06.451, some 0.763 seconds faster than Yasser Shahin’s similar Audi, as backed by The Bend Motorsport Park.

Brett Hobson demonstrated that there is plenty of speed left in his Trophy class Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, topping the class and taking third outright.

Mark Rosser, Stephen Grove and Prince Jefri Ibrahim filled positions four through six, with James Koundouris the top Am classification entry in seventh.

For Friday morning’s second race, Brenton Grove placed the Porsche 911 GT3 R he is sharing with his father Stephen on pole, as the sunny conditions allowed a swift time of 2:04.816.

Despite two purple sectors on his finale flying lap, Peter Hackett in the Triple Eight Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo fell short of Grove mark by 0.181 seconds, while Fraser Ross proved that adapting to his new Audi won’t be an issue, setting the third-best time of the 20-minute session.

Paul Stokell successfully bounced back from an accident in practice by claiming the Am pole position and fourth outright aboard the KFC-sponsored Audi, edging out Garth Walden in the RAM Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Former F1 racer Roberto Mehri, meanwhile, was sixth fastest in the Audi he is sharing with Rosser, while Hobson once again set the pace in the Trophy class.

The pair of 60-minute races are scheduled for Thursday at 12:25 p.m. local time (Wednesday, 8:25 p.m. ET) and Friday at 8:55 a.m. local (Thursday, 4:55 p.m. ET) with live coverage on SRO’s GT World Y0uTube page.

RESULTS: Qualifying