PORSCHE FASTEST AS CHAMPIONSHIP LEADERS CRASH DURING HAMPTON DOWNS 500 QUALIFYING

The Walkinshaw Racing Porsche will start the Hampton Downs 500 from pole position – Photo: Rhys Vandersyde

The Walkinshaw Racing Porsche of Liam Talbot and John Martin will start the Hampton Downs 500 from pole position after a stunning lap in the top ten shootout.

After setting the pace in the two earlier qualifying sessions, Martin was last driver to take to the the wet Hampton Downs circuit. Knowing the time set by McLaren ace Alvaro Parente, the Porsche driver went out eclipsed it by just 0.042 of a second to claim pole position for tomorrow’s 500 kilometer race.

Liam Talbot and John Martin after the shootout – Photo: Rhys Vandersyde

“Crucially, we’ll start on the inside into turn one and should hold onto that into turn two. Turn one creates a bit of excitement on the exit, so we should be able to hold onto it on the inside.”It was a great job by John Martin to get the setup right and I couldn’t be happier for the team.” said Talbot after qualifying.

“We’re going to go out there and do our own thing and hope we get the result!”

Provisional results will see the McLaren of Fraser Ross and Alvaro Parente line up alongside on the front row after setting the second fastest time in the shootout.

The Mercedes Benz AMG GT-S GT3 of Peter Hackett and Dominic Storey and the Porsche 911 GT3-R of Andrew Macpherson and Brad Shiels make up the second row of the grid.

Championship leaders Tim Miles and Jaxon Evans crashed in qualifying – Photo: Rhys Vandersyde

Earlier in the qualifying sessions, championship leaders Tim Miles and Jaxon Evans struck issues when Miles crashed their Audi R8. The Sydney based Kiwi lost control on a puddle of standing water which fired him into the concrete wall on the back straight. Prior to that, the two drivers had set a time good enough for them to earn a slot into the top ten shootout, however the car will face a lengthy overnight repair if it is to make it out for the race.

The Trass Family Motorsport Ferrari was also a victim of the conditions – Photo: Rhys Vandersyde

They weren’t the only drivers to come unstuck in the atrocious conditions. The Trass Family Motorsport car of Andrew Fawcett and Gene Rollinson also crashed out of the opening qualifying session earlier in the day. The damaged sustained to their Ferrari 458 too much to be repaired to take to the grid at tomorrows race.

Roger Lago and David Russell’s JBS Lamborghini R-EX will also sit out the rest of the weekend after a crash in the final practice session at the start of the day.

AUSTRALIAN GT TOP TEN QUALIFYING – HAMPTON DOWNS (PROVISIONAL)

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