The Intercontinental GT Challenge season has started with the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour at the Mount Panorama Circuit.

Starting on pole position in the No. 59 Tekno Autosports McLaren 650S, Shane van Gisbergen retained the lead in the start and dominated the race during his first two-hour-35-minute stint.

McLaren had a great qualifying; besides the No. 59 Tekno entry on pole, the other three McLarens were also in top six. In the race, after the first pit stops McLaren had a one-two lead as Warren Luff in the No. 11 McElrea Racing McLaren had jumped into the lead ahead of the No. 59 Tekno McLaren. Van Gisbergen in the No. 59 McLaren was the fastest man on the track and passed Luff for the lead but Luff remained in second place until late in the second hour he crashed into the concrete wall and the No. 11 McLaren had to retire from the race.

Luff's crash brought a safety car period, during which most lead cars pitted but the leading No. 59 Tekno McLaren stayed out. Once the No. 59 pitted, it had a lead of 40 seconds but rejoined the race 50 seconds from lead. Last year's winner but only 13th in Saturday's qualifying, Nissan Motorsports with their No. 1 GT-R NISMO GT3 was the new leader; however Bentley Team M-Sport's pair of Continental GT3s had gone past once the following pit stops had been completed. The No. 59 McLaren lost 45 seconds when it halted on the pit straight, yet could continue after a system reboot. A safety car period soon after that cut the loss suffered by the McLaren, and it was one of the contenders on the lead lap.

Maro Engel in the No. 63 Erebus Motorsport Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 had an impressive opening stint, lifting the car from 11th to second place during the first hour. However, it was hit with trouble and lost two laps to get the diffuser repaired. The Erebus team's other Mercedes, the No. 36 had its race progressing more smoothly and it was running on the lead lap.

In his second stint in the No. 63 Mercedes, Maro Engel did again great job and with help of safety car periods returned the car to lead lap during the eight hour. However, the great comeback didn't get a reward as Austin Cindric crashed into a tire barrier in the end of the eight hour because of a puncture during braking. Right after that the team's No. 36 Mercedes fell from the lead lap during a badly-timed pit stop under safety car condition.

Both of the two Bentleys had trouble during the race. The No. 10 Bentley had a rear wheel puncture, yet was fortunate to remain on the lead lap after the unscheduled pit stop. The No. sister 31 Bentley wasn't as fortunate; it pitted due to a right front wheel puncture, yet needed another lengthy stop because of bodywork damage that wasn't repaired during the first stop.

Behind McLaren, Audi had the strongest performance in the qualifying with four cars in top 10. The pair of Melbourne Performance Centre's R8 LMSs in the Class A-Pro-Am looked like Audi's biggest hopes for the race; however they both suffered (unrelated) punctures during the first three hours. The No. 74 Audi had to retire from the race due to suspension damage whereas the No. 75 Audi dropped off from the lead lap while the rear of its bodywork was repaired.

Those incidents left the No. 2 Phoenix Racing entry as Audi's biggest hope. The No. 2 Audi had dropped from the lead lap and struggled to unlap itself because of its poor top speed. Finally in the seventh hour it was back on the lead lap and a safety car period allowed it to catch the leaders.

The race went into its final three hours with four cars on the lead lap: the No. 10 Bentley, the No. 1 Nissan, the No. 59 McLaren, and the No. 2 Audi. At two hours remaining, Shane van Gisbergen, the fastest man of the weekend, took over the No. 59 McLaren while the race was led by the Nissan, followed by the Audi and the Bentley.

Van Gisbergen's charge suffered an immediate setback as he received a drive-through penalty for pitlane speeding. However, a safety car period with one and a half hours remaining cut the gaps.

The race got decided on the final pit stops where every car of the top four took fuel only. The Audi started the final round of pit stops. It was followed by the McLaren on the following lap, with the McLaren exiting the pits ahead of the Audi. Van Gisbergen in the McLaren was setting quicker lap times than the Nissan and the Bentley that were still to pit. Once the Bentley pitted, it couldn't stay ahead of the McLaren. Neither could the Nissan but it joined the track in second place, 14 seconds behind with 50 minutes of the race remaining.

Katsumasa Chiyo at the wheel of the Nissan had reduced the gap to the leading McLaren to under 10 seconds when the final 30 minutes started. Steven Kane in the third-placed Bentley couldn't catch van Gisbergen who was over 30 seconds ahead, yet Kane could build a gap of a few seconds to Laurens Vanthoor in the fourth-placed Audi.

Chiyo couldn't reduce the gap more before the very last laps, going into the final lap five seconds behind van Gisbergen. That was too much to catch in a lap; van Gisbergen won the race by 1.276 seconds on the finish line. The McLaren of Tekno Autosports was co-driven by Alvaro Parente and Jonathon Webb alongside van Gisbergen.

The No. 10 Bentley finished the race in third place, 47 seconds from the winning McLaren and 17 seconds ahead of the fourth-placed Phoenix Audi.

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About the author
Kalle Tyynelä
Motorsports and alpine skiing writer. Also interested in tennis and sports business.