McLaren crash draws first red flag at Bathurst 12 Hour

Buccini understeered out of the Metal Grate and grazed the wall at Sulman Park, which caused damage to the right front corner of the #25 McLaren Artura GT4.

Unable to steer, Buccini veered off into the gravel trap and buried his car.

That brought out the red flag on the stroke of half-time in the hour-long session.

At the time of the incident, the #183 Audi R8 LMS of Broc Feeney, Ricardo Feller, and Liam Talbot sat atop the timesheets with a 2:03.734s by the Supercars race winner.

It was an all-Pro top six with the Cameron Waters/Craig Lowndes/Thomas Randle Mercedes-AMG second and 0.141s off the pace.

Four brands were represented in the top six with Audi, three Mercedes-AMG entries, BMW, and Ferrari.

Jayden Ojeda was on course to reset the quickest time before the red flag after setting the fastest second sector.

Method Motorsport’s #25 McLaren Artura GT4 finds the wall across the top of the Mountain 💥#B12Hr pic.twitter.com/6IfX5JI8aa

— Bathurst 12 Hour (@Bathurst12hour) January 31, 2025

The session resumed with just over 14 minutes remaining after a lengthy clean-up.

When the sessions resumed, Waters shot to the top of the pile on a 2:03.693s. He went faster still on the following lap but pulled into the pits before realising that pace.

Lucas Auer in the Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG threatened Waters’ best lap, coming within 0.008s by the session’s end.

Feeney’s lap, which had him at the top before the red flag, eventually dropped to third.

Luca Stolz looked like he might improve late after personal bests in Sector 1 and Sector 2 but backed out in Sector 3 and remained eighth in the 75 Express Mercedes-AMG.

The top result in Practice 5 marked a turnaround for the Scott Taylor Motorsport team, who struggled with car balance on Friday.

Still, the session’s best times were a long way from record pace and nowhere near the two-minute laps expected in qualifying.

“We weren’t too overly happy with how we finished things up yesterday. With only the two 40-minute sessions, there were a lot more things we wanted to try,” said Thomas Randle.

“We found a few things overnight that I think explained what we were struggling with. All it takes around here is one thing that that you’re struggling with and 23 corners, it all adds up.

“We seemed a lot happier there. We haven’t thrown any tyres at it, I don’t think anyone has. It shows how durable the Pirellis are, which is good.

“We’ve still got a lot of things we want to fix up for the next practice, but certainly in a more happy position.”

Practice 6 gets underway at 10:25am AEDT.

Results: Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour Practice 5