Waters goes back to back final practice

The final practice before qualifying went to Cameron Waters, who emerged fastest once again in an intense session at Bathurst.

The heat was on in the sixth and final practice of the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour with the top 11 securing spots in Qualifying 2.

With many on green tyres, the fight for first went down to the final minutes where many put their hands up.

Despite being forced to back out of some fast laps due to lapped traffic, Waters had enough rubber and speed to post the leading 2:02.7000.

He was two tenths clear of Ross Gunn in the Craft Bamboo Mercedes and Jamie Day in the Aston Martin.

Tony D’Alberto put in a strong performance to be fourth ahead of longtime leader Laurin Heinrich.

Waters said constant changes in the Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes has put the #222 Mercedes he is sharing with Craig Lowndes and Thomas Randle in a strong spot ahead of qualifying.

“I was up on all the laps and traffic kept getting in my way,” Waters recalled on his late laps.

“The Porsche was real bad but I was lucky to get a lap in the end.

“It was probably perfect conditions at the end there. The car feels really good, but everyone is pushing.

“I would love to start on pole. The team has done a great job in getting the balance a little bit nicer for us.

“It would be cool to start at the front but we are focused on the race.”

Despite being practice, it was effectively the first stage of qualifying with the positions dictating who will take part in the two segments of qualifying.

The aim was to get into the top 11 that will take part in the later Qualifying 2 session.

Once again Farfus flew out of the blocks, diving straight into the 2m4s threshold as the rest were still in the 2m6s.

It was a Team WRT 1-2 with Farfus’ 2:04.9600 leading Rossi by 1.3s across the first eight minutes before the others stepped it up.

Although Dean Fiore and Robichon managed to get within a second of Farfus, Rossi also put the foot down to retain the Team WRT dominance at the top of the leaderboard.

Their stranglehold was first broken by Maximilian Gotz who snuck ahead of Rossi before being replaced by Daniel Serra in the Ferrari and eventually Robichon.

Although his rivals were shifting gears, so was Farfus who kept his rivals at arm’s length by lowering his benchmark to a 2:04.6000.

But soon he had company as both Gotz and then Heinrich eclipsed him.

Heinrich in the EMA Porsche was the first to fly into the 2m03s window, setting a scorching 2:03.0870s.

He ended his stint with a considerable 1.3s margin over the rest of the field.

But the battle for best of the rest was alive and well as Fiore had Serra and Gotz just 0.02s away.

The breakout blow was made by Randle, who was the first to come within a second of the #91.

But his time in second was short lived as Feeney was the first to join Heinrich in the 2m03s window.

Feeney kept on pumping out the times and was able to come within 0.2290s before pitting at the halfway mark.

As the session wound down van der Linde was the first to come within two tenths as teams also focused on driver changes and pit stop practice.

Stolz made a big move to surge from 13th to fifth before a purple first sector sent him to second.

Inside the final 15 minutes, Mostert was pushing hard to stay in the top 11 and had a close call whacking the wall under the tree when opening the wheel, but escaped with minimal damage.

This was a sign the pressure was on in the Arise Racing GT garage as both cars sat outside the top 11.

Evans responded by pushing the Pro Am entry from 14th to 10th, while Mostert nailed the fastest second sector, only to stuff up the final turn to be 11th.

In the final five minutes Day finally knocked off Heinrich from top spot by being the first in the 2m02s.

However, he had his challengers with Waters and D’Alberto setting purple sectors.

Whilst the Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes was baulked by lapped traffic at Griffins, D’Alberto had no such dramas and went to second.

Bronze driver Gunn edged ahead of Gunn, but Waters still had life in those tyres.

Determined to not let the opportunity slip, the Scott Taylor Motorsport driver gave it everything to go 0.2750s clear of the field.

The contest to make it in the top 11 was getting heated with both Feller and Guven nailing identical times.

In the end they were both safe, but only just, joining Waters, Gunn, Day, D’Alberto, Heinrich, Marciello, van der Linde, Engel and Gounon.

Qualifying begins at 13.05 AEDT where the slower half of practice 6 get 30 minutes on track.

Once the entire field has 30 minutes each, the fastest 10 cars will fight for the Allan Simonsen Pole Award at 16.05 AEDT.

Main image: Matt Christie / Network R

Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour Practice 6 results