Bathurst 12 Hour: Bentley Boys win at Mount Panorama for the first time

Bentley Team M-Sport‘s Jules Gounon, Maxime Soulet and Jordan Pepper are the winners of the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour at Mount Panorama, giving the first-ever victory to Bentley in Australia’s greatest international endurance race, a part of the Intercontinental GT Challenge. The trio in the #7 Bentley Continental GT3 has won the race after setting the new distance record of 313 laps at the famous 6.2km Mount Panorama Circuit.

The #7 crew gives the first win to Bentley at Mount Panorama

Three different manufacturers were represented on the podium. Alvaro Parente, Ben Barnicoat and Tom Blomqvist made a fantastic debut at Mount Panorama for McLaren, finishing second in the #60 McLaren 720S GT3 of the Australian team 59Racing. Triple Eight Engineering took the third place with the #888 Mercedes-AMG GT3, driven by Supercars superstars Jamie Whincup, Shane van Gisbergen and German racer Maxi Gotz.

Initially, GruppeM Racing’s #999 Mercedes finished in the second place, driven by Raffaele Marciello, but he was given 30sec time-penalty because he wasn’t turned off the engine during the last pitstop. The penalty demoted the #999 Mercedes to P6. Marciello was sharing a car with Felipe Fraga and Maxi Buhk.

The Silver class victory goes to 59Racing’s McLaren

Absolute Racing’s #911 Porsche 911 GT3 R and Craft-Bamboo Racing’s #77 Mercedes-AMG GT3 completed the top 5 in the overall standings. Absolute Racing’s #912 Porsche crew finished the race in the seventh place.

The eighth overall, and the winners of the Silver class, are Martin Kodrić, Fraser Ross and Dominic Storey in the #59 McLaren 720S GT3 of 59Racing. Ben Barker, Steven Grove and Brenton Grove are the ProAm class winners (and tenth overall) in the #4 Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Photos: Bentley Motorsport, Kevin Pecks/Vier Communication, Daniel Kalisz,