Lucas Auer has taken pole position for the 2025 Bathurst 12 Hour, winning the Allan Simonsen Trophy in the #77 Craft Bamboo Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 EVO.
Auer’s lap, a 2:01.276, was set on his only flying lap, as he elected to produce a traditional ‘shootout ’-style flyer in the 15-minute session.
“Big thanks to my teammates, and my team, Mercedes AMG for a great car, and I’m really looking forward to the race tomorrow,” Auer said.
“It’s a legendary place, and such a cool circuit.”
The pole lap was good enough to best Qualifying pace setter Ricardo Feller in the #183 Jamec Racing Audi, who tried to challenge Auer but could only manage a 2:01.4. Rounding out the top three was Maro Engel in the #888 Team GMR Mercedes, with a 2:01.5.
Curiously, Team GMR and Craft Bamboo had entirely different philosophies in their Pole Battle session; while Craft Bamboo laid it all on the line on one lap, Engel continued to improve on subsequent laps, peaking on his fourth flying lap, right at the end of the session.
The #32 WRT BMW and #26 Arise Racing Ferrari round out the top five, while sixth was Laurin Heinrich in the #91 The Bend Manthey EMA Porsche, heading the Pro-Am field.
Nine of the 10 cars set lap times in the 2:01’s, with the gap across the field only 0.89 of a second.
It’s Craft Bamboo’s first pole position at The Mountain, and the fifth pole for Mercedes-AMG. This moves them into the outright lead in Pole Positions for the Bathurst 12 Hour, ahead of Audi with four.
It has been a long time since the pole-sitter has gone on to win this race however, with the last occasion being Maranello Motorsports in the Ferrari 488, back in 2017.
The grid is now set for the 2025 Bathurst 12 Hour, which kicks off tomorrow morning before dawn, at 5:45 Local time [AEDT, UTC+11]
