There was a delay to the start due to a timing fault. The cars parked on the front straight, leaving the clock to tick away.

With the Am drivers in for the start, Schumacher in the Melbourne Performance Centre Audi R8 LMS trailed the race-leading pair of Liam Talbot in the points-leading Arise Racing Ferrari 296 and Paul Stokell in the second MPC-run Audi.

But immediately after the mandatory pit stops, Brown passed Stokell’s co-driver Renee Gracie for the lead and never looked back.

Brown took the chequered flag ahead of Mostert who took over from Talbot while Brendon Leitch and Tim Miles charged to third after their MPC Audi was sixth before the pit stops.

The win keeps Brown and Schumacher in the title fight, albeit at long odds. They sit in a must-win position with a maximum of 25 points on offer for Sunday’s race win. Mostert and Talbot lead the series by 24 points.

Fourth place went to the Team BRM Audi of Alex Peroni and Mark Rosser ahead of Brenton and Stephen Grove (Grove Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3) and Jaxon Evans and Elliott Schutte in the second Arise Ferrari.

Jayden Ojeda and Paul Lucchitti brought their Mercedes-AMG home in eighth place in front of Gracie/Stokell and Declan Fraser and Peter Hackett. The latter pair crossed the line ninth. However, a penalty to the Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG for just missing the CPS window with their stop dropped them back.

The Am class win went to Sergio Pires in the Tigani Motorsport Audi. He finished the race in 10th place while second in class for Garth Walden and Michael Sheargold (GWR Mercedes) was good enough to take the Am title for the year.

The Koundouris brothers James and Theo were an outside chance in their Mercedes until it overheated and went into limp mode. Their race finished in the pits.

Valentino Astuti and Liam Dunn (KMB Motorsport Aston Martin Vantage) finished 14th outright and took the Trophy class. Their rival was Stephen Coe who was a DNF after a high speed off in the Chase.

The final Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS will be on Sunday, scheduled to begin at 2:55pm AEDT.