Feller wins fierce fight for provisional pole

A thrilling fight for the Allan Simonsen Pole Award can be anticipated after Ricardo Feller snuck ahead of his rivals in an enthralling qualifying at the 2025 Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour.

Despite the field being split into separate 30-minute segments, nothing was in it with the top three separated by just 0.03s.

Feller emerged on top in the #183 Melbourne Performance Centre Audi that he is sharing with Broc Feeney and Liam Talbot.

Just three hundredths away were Laurin Heinrich (#91 Porsche) and Sheldon van der Linde (#32 BMW) while Cameron Waters was fourth fastest.

Maro Engel and Luca Stolz were the last of the Q2 runners to make it to the Pole Battle with the remainder of the top 10 Q1 cars springing a surprise.

Doing fast enough times in the early session were Q1 leader Lucas Auer, Chaz Mostert, Lee Holdsworth and Scott Andrews, meaning reigning winner Matt Campbell will start the 12 Hour 11th.

Valentino Rossi’s #46 BMW ran into engine dramas and could only manage 12th.

Reflecting on his lap, Feller said he was on the edge of the limit.

“Kind of (maxed out) it was a really good lap and the car feels great,” he said.

“I am really happy and lets see what the Shootout brings.

“When I first drove it out of the pits I was a little bit surprised because the Audi is not the easiest to drive, but we have a good line up.

“It would mean a lot to me. Having a good car at one of my favourite tracks is amazing.”

Van der Linde was the first to make a climb up the leaderboard, settling the BMW into fifth overall, but only just shy of two tenths off the ultimate pace.

After 10 minutes Waters and Marciello were the only Q2 members to sit in the top 10, but the best was yet to come.

There was no questioning Van der Linde’s pace as he was the first to fire a 2m01s time with 20 minutes left.

The rapid 2:01.9290 was 0.1990s clear of Auer, while the next best Q2 driver was Marciello in sixth overall, four tenths away.

He was soon joined by Waters as he kept chipping away in his first stint and shot to seventh before later improving to steal sixth.

But with the sun out few were able to make major inroads into the top 10 during the early minutes with only Campbell joining them and only van der Linde faster than the top four Q1 cars.

Despite being clearly the fastest on track, not all was well for the #32 BMW as it was under investigation for being in breach of article 4.12.9 shot the lights out, but it was eventually cleared.

Team GMR ran out of sync with Maro Engel not cutting laps in anger until the second half of the session and this move did not pay off when he ran into traffic.

After waiting for seven minutes, Engel finally got to put the foot down and he went straight to third overall with a solid 2:02.2230.

But Waters was going even faster as he shot to second, sitting just 0.1820s away from van der Linde.

With five minutes on the clock, Campbell and Q1 member Schiller were on the bubble as Stolz set a purple opening sector go from 11th to third.

Feller and Heinrich were also late movers, rising from outside the top 14 to occupy the first positions on the leaderboard.

Feller was leading the assault, posting a 2:01.8940 with just 0.03s covering the top three as suddenly the top six were all Q2 members.

With engine issues on the 12th placed #46 BMW of Marciello, all eyes were on Campbell in the final minutes with Q1 driver Andrews hanging onto the final Pole Battle ticket.

At the start of his final lap, Campbell ran slightly wide coming out of Griffins Bend, but bounced back with a personal best second sector.

However, another small moment at the Chase ended up being the final blow with the defending winner heading to the pits.

Gunn was the last to have a crack and could only manage 13th.

The Allan Simonsen Pole Award will be determined by the Pole Battle where the top 10 cars chase perfection across 15 short, sharp minutes.

That all fires up at 16.05 AEDT.

Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour combined Qualifying results 

image: Mark Horsburgh

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