Ferrari wins classic Bathurst 12 Hour

Ferrari is the 2017 Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour champion. After 12 hours and 290 laps, the Maranello Motorsport Caltex Ferrari 488 GT3 squad of Finn Toni Vilander and Supercar stars Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowdnes claimed a clear lap margin at the chequered flag.

But it was far from a clear-cut pole-to-flag win. In what has become a tradition for the endurance classic, the result went down to the final minutes.

Second looked set to be the Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Shane van Gisbergen, DTM star Maro Engel and Craig Baird.

Then contact with a lapped car earned van Gisbergen a drive-through penalty but before he could serve it, he crashed out after catching the kerb on the right-hand kink on the exit of The Dipper.

The result was so unexpected it could not have been scripted.

In second place at the flag was the Ice Break Porsche 911 GT3 R of Patrick Long, Marc Lieb, David Calvert-Jones and Matt Campbell.

Crowd favourites, the #17 Bentley factory Continental GT GT3 of Steven Kane, Guy Smith and Oliver Jarvis were third.

All hell breaks loose
With mere seconds still the margin between the Ferrari and AMG, the final ‘normal’ pit-stop took place with 43mins to go, when the AMG pitted for fuel but was able to re-join just in front of the Ferrari.

In the final stint, then it was Supercar teammates Shane van Gisbergen and GT3 debutante Jamie Whincup against each other in very different GT3 cars. Whincup’s pass on lap 275 involved side-to-side contact at over 260km/h into the Caltex Chase.

Then all hell broke loose. In two uncharacteristic ‘jinks’, van Gisbergen hit a slower Porsche, earned the drive-through penalty, and then crashed.

AMG teammate Maro Engel was not happy with van Gisbergen’s “error”. The clearly emotional German AMG factory driver didn’t mince words: “It’s not motorsport in my book. All I’ve seen is a lot of mistakes by Shane…”

Van Gisbergen replied: “[I ] Just stuffed up, and ended up in the wall. Sorry to my team, and sorry to my teammates.”

The Maranello squad qualified on pole for the event. And it was the fast car of the field all day – indeed, Ferrari was one of only two cars to dip into the 2m02 range during the race.

The other to do so was the MARC GT BMW M6 GT3 of Chaz Mostert. Like the other fast BMWs, Mostert’s race was cut short after a crash and then gearbox issues.

Clearly in with a chance until the SVG combined ‘incidents’, the Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 only just qualified in the top 20. Then an over-ambitious overtaking move after an early yellow flag by Baird scored the squad a drive-through.

And yet as the race drew to a close, the long-term pace of the Benz kept it in contention. Indeed, with one hour to go, only the Ferrari and AMG remained on the lead lap.

The second-placed Porsche was fast all day – defying its fourth row qualifying position – and it too was in contention. However, with just over an hour to run the Ice Break Porsche 911 GT3 R tripped over a slower Lamborghini at Turn One.

It was a rare miss-step for the new Porsche factory Supercup scholarship winner Campbell. And earned the squad [another] drive-through penalty.

On balance, the youngster had barely put a foot wrong during his stints – and save for the need to drive to overcome penalty drive-throughs incurred by teammates a fairy-tale finish might have ensued.

Fourth was the #912 Walkinshaw GT Porsche GT3 R of Liam Talbot, John Martin and Duvashen Padayachee. Fifth was the 2016 defending champions, the Tekno Autosport McLaren 650S GT3 squad of Alvaro Parente, Bell and Come Ledogar

The Team BMW SRM M6 GT3 of Steven Richards, Mark Winterbottom and Marco Wittman was fast early but was slowed from the second stint of the day with power-steering issues. It finished 14th.

The Three Amigos (officially Castrol Vodafone) BMW attack on the race was cut short at the halfway point after a strong, consistence performance from Bathurst veterans Mark Skaife, Russell Ingall, Tony Longhurst and young gun, German Timo Glock.

The run ended whilst Ingall was attempting to lift the car back onto the lead lap after the bonnet lifted just after the five hour mark. The time taken to re-attach the bonnet saw the Castrol Vodafone M6 GT3 drop off the lead lap.

Ingall then collected the fence on the way down the Mountain. Broken steering triggered a collision with the opposite wall the squad’s day was done.

Nissan too had a race that failed to deliver. The #23 factory Nismo GT-R was beset with gearbox issues early on.

After dragging the Nissan Genuine Oil #24 Nismo GT-R up into contention with an inspired first stint, midway through the race Todd Kelly on the other hand was confident his Nissan shared with Jann Mardenborough and Florian Strauss was in with a chance. But it wasn’t to be – as the team cycled back through the line-up gear selection issues hit.

The fix was a simple actuator change but the three laps lost cost the squad any chance at the race. Kelly’s crew finished eighth, nine laps down on the winner.