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Three Mercedes-AMGs, a Porsche, and a BMW are set to be in the top 50 percent of this afternoon’s final qualifying session at the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour.
The table below shows the provisional top 10 after two qualifying sessions thus far at Mount Panorama, which has now been confirmed by event media.
The Bathurst 12 Hour employs a complex set of rules for grid determination, relying on aggregating two lap times per car, but in different circumstances depending on whether that car is in the Pro class or a lower class.
Pro cars skip Qualifying – Part 1 (Q1) and must have a lap time set by at least two drivers in Qualifying – Part 2 (Q2), of which the fastest two respective fastest lap times are added to determine an aggregate time for the car.
In the case of Pro-Am cars, their official Driver 3 and/or Driver 4 set a lap time in Q1, then their official Driver 1 and/or Driver 2 set a lap time in Q2, with the car’s best time in each session added to determine the aggregate.
The cars with the 10-fastest aggregate times will go into what is officially known as a Top Ten Shootout later this afternoon, while the rest of the grid is locked in.
The shootout is in fact a pair of 15-minute segments, results of which are then combined to determine the top 10 on the starting grid.
GruppeM Racing’s #999 Mercedes-AMG will go into the latter segment, for the top 50 percent, after Maro Engel set a practice lap record 2:01.0536s and Raffaele Marciello subsequently clocked a 2:01.5130s for a total time of 4:02.5666s.
In the #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes-AMG, Jules Gounon set a 2:01.7452s in Q2 before Luca Stolz laid down a 2:01.3210s for an aggregate of 4:03.0662s.
Rounding out the top five are the Supercheap Auto-backed #888 Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG, the #912 Manthey EMA Porsche, and the #32 Team WRT BMW.
The bottom 50 percent of the ‘shootout’ will be the #46 WRT BMW, the #74 Melbourne Performance Centre Audi, the #65 MPC Audi from the Pro-Am class, the #77 Craft-Bamboo Mercedes-AMG, and the #44 Valmont Racing Mercedes-AMG from the Silver class.
The shootout starts this afternoon at 16:10 local time/AEDT, with the top 50 percent due on-track from 16:35.
Starting grid: Bathurst 12 Hour Provisional, Top 10
| Pos | Num | Team/Sponsor | Time |
| 1 | 999 | GruppeM Racing | 4:02.567 |
| 2 | 75 | Sun Energy 1 | 4:03.066 |
| 3 | 888 | Supercheap Auto Racing | 4:03.483 |
| 4 | 912 | Manthey EMA | 4:04.080 |
| 5 | 32 | Team WRT | 4:04.115 |
| 6 | 46 | Team WRT | 4:04.457 |
| 7 | 74 | The Bend Motorsport Park / MPC | 4:05.404 |
| 8 | 65 | Sportsbet Team MPC | 4:05.512 |
| 9 | 77 | Mercedes-AMG Craft-Bamboo | 4:05.516 |
| 10 | 44 | Valmont Racing | 4:06.121 |
