Van Gisbergen Out Front After Three Hours

Photo: Gruppe C/Mercedes-AMG

Shane van Gisbergen led the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour after three hours following the race’s first full course caution.

The Triple Eight Race Engineering driver held a 0.560-second advantage over the No. 912 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R of Matt Campbell, with Valentino Rossi third in the No. 46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3.

Campbell made a challenge on van Gisbergen for the lead following the race’s restart for an accident by the No. 4 Grove Racing Porsche of Stephen Grove at McPhillamy Park.

Grove was uninjured in the accident, which was reportedly triggered following contact with the No. 222 Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Alex Davison.

A drive-through penalty for defending overall winner Kenny Habul for a pit lane exit violation ultimately dropped the No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes one lap behind as the Akkodis ASP-run team elected to pit the Bronze-rated team owner/driver one lap later to change to Jules Gounon.

The pole-sitting No. 999 GruppeM Racing Mercedes of Mikael Grenier ran fourth at the quarter-mark after making a pit stop under the yellow, unlike the majority of the other leading GT3 competitors that gained ground as a result of Grove’s accident.

Charles Weerts ran fifth in the No. 32 WRT Audi, meanwhile.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John