Auer Sneaks Clear of Mostert

Lucas Auer did enough to edge out Chaz Mostert in the first segment of qualifying for the 2025 Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour.

Qualifying kicked off with the slower 11 cars from Practice 6 taking on the mountain across 30 minutes, but there were still some big names on show.

Mercedes, Ferrari and Audi went toe to toe and in the end Auer held on with a 2:02.1280.

The Craft Bamboo Mercedes emerged just 0.0960s clear of Mostert, who fired a last-gasp lap before the chequered flag in his Arise Racing Ferrari 296.

Lee Holdsworth and Scott Andrews were also on the pace, being less than two tenths away.

The Qualifying 1 group now faces a nervous wait to see if they can make it to the Pirelli Pole Battle after the other half of cars hit the track at 16.05 AEDT.

When the green flag was waved, Schiller was the only driver to give it everything in the opening five minutes, posting a 2:04.5440 in the Grove Mercedes.

However, the big names started putting the foot down at the seven minute mark.

Despite Supercars stars Russell, Mostert and Evans all getting into the 2m03s window, they were beaten by Scott Andrews with a 2:03.2640.

This set the tone for a tug-of-war session as Mostert immediately responded by sneaking 0.0130s ahead before extending that margin to 0.1060s.

With Russell and Holdsworth also within two tenths, the pace was hot with times dipping into the 2m02s area.

Evans marked the start of the final 10 minutes by going purple in both the second and final sectors in an edgy Ferrari.

This was enough to be purple overall and knock off his Arise Racing GT teammate from P1 by 0.007s.

The teammate tussle carried on with Mostert finding four extra tenths, while Andrews was also going for it.

He snapped the Ferrari stranglehold with an impressive final sector to take P1 with a 2:02.2750.

Although his Mercedes was looking very edgy over the top, Auer joined the party and split Andrews and Mostert.

With the Craft Bamboo Mercedes now in the mix, just 0.0600s covered the top two and one tenth across the top three.

With just enough cloud cover, Auer kept finding in the tyres on his #77 Mercedes as he lowered the benchmark to a 2:02.1280.

He had a tenth up his sleeve on Holdsworth, who also bested Andrews.

Mostert timed his final push run at the perfect moment, squeezing out one last lap before the chequered flag.

It paid off as he nailed the final sector to rise from fourth to second with a last-gasp 2:02.2240.

Image: GT World Challenge

Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour Qualifying Part 1 results

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