CHAZ Mostert has taken the Allan Simonsen pole award trophy ahead of tomorrow’s Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour after setting a blistering lap in the Top 10 Shootout.
The BMW Team Schnitzer driver, who shares the #43 BMW M6 GT3 with co-drivers Augusto Farfus and Marco Wittmann, lapped the 6.2km Mount Panorama circuit in a 2:01.934, holding off the charging Audi of Kelvin van der Linde who was unable to better Mostert’s time.
“We were close last year in the Pro-Am entry but it’s pretty special to go to the pointy end and actually get the pole this time with Schnitzer Motorsport and the BMW Motorsport group,” said Mostert.
“For me it’s amazing, the boys gave enough trust in me to qualify the car and we made the car better and better over practice. It’s a lot of hard work to fly a car all the way from Germany to put it on the pole so it’s fantastic.
Van der Linde’s lap, which was only 0.235s slower than Mostert’s, was good enough to secure the South African Audi gun a front row start for tomorrow’s race in second, aboard the #22 Jamec Pem Racing Audi he shares with Garth Tander and Frederich Vervisch.
The sister #74 Audi of Christopher Haase, Christopher Mies and Markus Winkelhock will start from third on the grid, with Haase setting a 2:02.434 early on in the session after being the fifth car out on track.
Buik Motorsports will lineup fourth with their #777 Lamborghini Gallardo combination of Yasser Shahin, Luke Youlden and Tomas Enge after Youlden set the time which got them on the second row of the grid.
Fifth place is the #47 YNA Autosport McLaren 650s GT3 of Scott McLaughlin, who had a slight moment at The Chase on his lap costing him vital time, though he will still line up on the third row of the grid with co-drivers Fraser Ross, Andrew Watson and Alexander West.
Cameron Waters was the first car out in the session after being promoted into the top 10 after the #100 BMW Team SRM M6 GT3 had its lap taken away from it.
The young gun set a 2:03.418 to put the #55 Mercedes-AMG Team Strakka Racing car sixth ahead of tomorrow’s race, sharing the car with co-drivers Nick Leventis, David Fumanelli and Lewis Williamson.
Row four of the grid is occupied by the #37 Audi Sport Team WRT Audi of Robin Frijns – who set a 2:03.448 – and the #58 YNA Autosport of Shane van Gisbergen, Craig Lowndes and Cöme Ledogar in eighth.
The final two spots in the top ten are taken up by the #17 Bentley Team M-Sport Continental GT3 – with Steven Kane setting the lap time in that car – and the #12 Competition Motorsports Porsche, which was driven by Matt Campbell in tenth.
Tomorrow’s Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour begins at 5:45am local time, with Live coverage across Australia kicking off at 5:30am on channel 7mate.
By: Slade Perrins.
Source: http://www.bathurst12hour.com.au
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