The Maranello Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3 has been stripped of pole position for its global race debut at Albert Park following a technical infringement.
Tony D’Alberto landed pole position courtesy of a 1:54.88s set in the opening session, but the entry was excluded from the results following final qualifying.
The Vicious Rumour Racing Ferrari 488 GT3, which had qualified fourth overall, was also excluded from Qualifying 1 due to a technical infringement with the car.
Today’s GT qualifying saw combined times taken from two sessions, with 20 minutes for Driver A in the morning and a further 20 minutes for the B drivers in the afternoon.
As a result, the Jamec-Pem Audi R8 of reigning Australian GT champion Christopher Mies and Geoff Emery will start from pole following the German’s 1:54.9s effort in Q1.
Maranello Motorsport will start from the back of the grid while Vicious Rumour Racing will start from ninth after Benny Simonsen topped Q2 in the Tony De Felice owned entry.
The qualifying exclusion for Maranello Motorsport and Vicious Rumour Racing comes on top of confirmation prior to practice that Ferrari’s latest GT3 offering will not be eligible for points at this weekend’s second round of the season.
With homologation paperwork failing to be lodged before Wednesday’s deadline, both cars are running as invitational entries.
The Team SRM BMW M6 GT3 fell foul of the same issue two weeks ago preventing it from scoring points last the Clipsal 500 season opener, but has received sign-off to score points this weekend.
The Tekno McLaren 650S of Jonathon Webb and Grant Denyer will join the Jamec-Pem Audi on the front row with the Scott Taylor/Craig Baird Mercedes AMG GT3 in third.
Dean Canto and Andrew Taplin will start from fourth ahead of the Melbourne Performance Centre Audi R8 of James Koundouris and Marcus Marshall.
The second outing was stopped four minutes early when the Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport run Peter Rullo/Alex Rullo Lamborghini stopped on track.
This weekend’s format will see the A drivers start Races 1 and 3, with the B drivers in for the start of Races 2 and 4.
George Miedecke (Aston Martin), Matthew Solomon (Mercedes), Cameron McConville (Ferrari) and John Martin (Porsche) complete the top 10.
Result: Australian GT Championship Qualifying, Albert Park
| 1 | JAMEC PEM Racing | C.Mies/G.Emery | Audi R8 LMS | 1:54.9059* | |
| 2 | McLaren Melbourne | J.Webb/G.Denyer | McLaren 650S GT3 | 1:55.6953 | 00.7894 |
| 3 | Scott Taylor Motorsport | Scott Taylor (QLD) | Mercedes Benz AMG GT | 1:56.0252 | 01.1193 |
| 4 | Taplin Real Estate | D.Canto/A.Taplin | Lamborghini Gallardo | 1:56.0750 | 01.1691 |
| 5 | Supabarn Supermarkets | M.Marshall/J.Koundouris | Audi R8 LMS | 1:56.1138 | 01.2079 |
| 6 | Miedecke Motor group | G.Miedecke/A.Miedecke | Aston Martin Vantage | 1:56.3432 | 01.4373 |
| 7 | Eggleston Motorsport | Matthew Solomon | Mercedes Benz AMG GT | 1:56.7648 | 01.8589 |
| 8 | Maranello Motorsport | C.McConville/A.Deitz | Ferrari 458 GT3 | 1:56.7840 | 01.8781 |
| 9 | DeFelice Homes | Benny Simonsen (DK) | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 1:56.8768 | 01.9709 |
| 10 | Waltec Motorsport | J.Martin/A.Tebb | Porsche 997 GT3-R | 1:56.9646 | 02.0587 |
| 11 | SR Motorsport | S.Richards/M.Twigg | BMW M6 GT3 | 1:57.1153 | 02.2094 |
| 12 | Interlloy M Motorsport | Justin McMillan (VIC) | Lamborghini R-EX | 1:57.1890 | 02.2831 |
| 13 | JBS Australia | Roger Lago (QLD) | Lamborghini R-EX | 1:57.3623 | 02.4564 |
| 14 | Darrell Lea | Klark Quinn (QLD) | McLaren 650S GT3 | 1:57.3749 | 02.4690 |
| 15 | Tekno | Nathan Morcom | McLaren 650S GT3 | 1:57.7911 | 02.8852 |
| 16 | SLR Tekno | N.Antunes/E.Barbour | McLaren 650S GT3 | 1:58.0713 | 03.1654 |
| 17 | Darrell Lea | Tony Quinn (QLD) | Aston Martin Vantage | 1:59.0762 | 04.1703 |
| 18 | Modena Engineering | Ricky Capo (VIC) | BMW Z4 GT3 | 1:59.5270 | 04.6211 |
| 19 | Objective Racing | Tony Walls (QLD) | McLaren 650S GT3 | 1:59.8119 | 04.9060 |
| 20 | Hogs Breath Cafe/Griffith C | Mark Griffith (QLD) | Mercedes Benz AMG GT | 2:00.4713 | 05.5654 |
| 21 | GT Motorsport | Greg Taylor (NSW) | Audi R8 LMS | 2:00.5562 | 05.6503 |
| 22 | Rosso Verde Racing | Hector Lester | Ferrari 458 GT3 | 2:00.6503 | 05.7444 |
| 23 | M Motorsport | John Magro (QLD) | Lamborghini Gallardo | 2:01.4821 | 06.5762 |
| 24 | JAMEC PEM Racing | Stephen McLaughlan (VIC) | Audi R8 LMS | 2:01.5467 | 06.6408 |
| 25 | Koala Motorsport | Tim Macrow (VIC) | Ferrari F430 GT3 | 2:02.9617 | 08.0558 |
| 26 | Bondi Wholefoods | Ash Samadi (VIC) | Mercedes Benz AMG SL | 2:03.1159 | 08.2100 |
| 27 | Performance West | Peter Rullo (WA) | Lamborghini Gallardo | 2:03.4204 | 08.5145 |
| 28 | Fastway Couriers | Tim Miles (NSW) | Audi R8 Ultra | 2:03.5864 | 08.6805 |
| 29 | Skwirk Online Education | Rod Salmon (NSW) | Audi R8 Ultra | 2:03.8536 | 08.9477 |
| 30 | Fire Rating Solutions | Matthew Turnbull (VIC) | Lamborghini LP-560 G | 2:05.5923 | 10.6864 |
| 31 | AMAC Motorsport | Andrew Macpherson (NSW) | Porsche 997 GT3-R | 2:06.4121 | 11.5062 |
| 32 | Maranello Motorsport | Peter Edwards (VIC) | Ferrari 488 GT3 | 2:07.8452 | 12.9393 |
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