Bathurst 12 Hour: Mercedes and Ferrari fighting it out at half-way mark

It’s been an extraordinary three hours of racing between the #88 Ferrari and the #22 Mercedes. It started at a restart just after the three-hour mark, Craig Lowndes leading Craig Baird at the front of the field as the Safety Car peeled off the track. Rather than tucking in behind Lowndes as per the regulations, Baird barged down the inside of the Ferrari at the last corner – before the race was officially restarted – and punted the 488 GT3 into the sand trap.

Baird charged off into the lead while Lowndes was remarkably lucky to not go down a lap, the recovery crew getting the Maranello car going just in the nick of time.

Predictably, the #22 Mercedes was hit with a 10-second stop-go penalty for Baird’s actions, the two cars winding up running eighth and ninth on the road, Baird leading Whincup who had since jumped into the Ferrari.

Whincup quickly cleared the Mercedes and went on a charge through the field, including a remarkable pass on Liam Talbot’s Walkinshaw Porsche over the top of The Mountain. Just after the five-hour mark, Whincup passed Marc Lieb (#12 Competition Motorsports Porsche) for the lead.

Half an hour later, the #88-#22 battle resumed. With Shane van Gisbergen in the Mercedes, the pair engaged in a new round of on-track squabbling, running side-by-side through The Chase once before van Gisbergen finally charged his way through several laps later.

At half-race distance, the two cars are separated by 16s and a handful of lapped cars behind the Safety Car. Van Gisbergen is still at the wheel of the Mercedes, while Lowndes is back in the Ferrari.

Patrick Long is currently sitting third in the Competition Motorsports Porsche, and impressive stint from Marc Lieb having kept the car in contention. The #24 Nissan GT-R is next in line, Todd Kelly matching it with the leaders during his stint before handing over to Florian Strauss.

Oliver Jarvis in the #17 Bentley the final car on the lead lap in fifth.

The #5 GT Motorsport Audi had been on the lead lap, and running fifth, until just after the six-hour mark, when a run-in with David Russell saw Elliot Barbour wind up stranded at Turn 1. That incident was the cause of the latest Safety Car.

Russell Ingall endured one of the scariest moments of the race so far when his bonnet came lose in the middle of The Chase at the five-hour mark. The #7 BMW Team SRM entry was running third on the road, having be shuffled up during a round of stops, when his vision was suddenly impaired midway through the flat-out corner. The veteran did a remarkable job to keep the M6 off the wall, diving into the pits and rejoining at the back end of the Top 10.

Ingall’s luck ran out right before the half-way mark, though, when he collided with the wall at The Esses. The hit was heavy enough to see a devastated Ingall climb from the wrecked car on the spot, the #7 M6 done for the day.