Pole for Craig Baird

In the Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3, Craig Baird has gone fastest in the first CAMS Australian GT Championship qualifying session at Albert Park.

Setting the grid for Race 1 late this afternoon, Baird went under the lap record with a 1 minute 55.1854 second flyer to outpoint ex-Formula 1 racer Giancarlo Fisichella by a mere 0.034 seconds.

It was the fifth closest pole position margin in Australian GT history.

Some of the best times were set in the last three minutes after a red flag situation when Luke Seidler ran wide in his Porsche 991 GT3 Cup Car at Turn 1.

Nick Karnaros (Porsche 997 Cup) had a similar incident a couple of corners up the road but managed to extract himself and continue.

Third fastest behind the Fisichella’s Maranello Motorsport Ferrari 488 was Tony D’Alberto in the WM Waste Management Mercedes ahead of three-time Le Mans winner Marcel Fassler (Valvoline Audi R8 LMS).

Row three for race one will be shared by John Martin (Walkinshaw Racing Porsche 911 GT3-R) and Dan Gaunt (Audi R8 LMS), ahead of Dean Canto (Lamborghini Huracan GT3) and Steve Richards (BMW M6 GT3). Fraser Ross (McLaren 650S GT3) and Dom Storey (Mercedes-AMG GT3) complete the top ten.

Fastest of the GT Trophy cars was driven by Nick Kelly who was 12th overall his Audi R8 LMS Ultra with nearest class rival John Morriss (Porsche GT3-R) three spots further back and Rio Nugara (Audi R8 LMS Ultra) in 16th.

In the GT4 class, Jeremy Gray paved the way in his Aston Martin, less than a second ahead of Justin McMillian (KTM X-Bow), the BMW M4 driven by Xavier West, and Mark Griffith in the Ginetta.

Race 1 is set to commence at 18:00 this evening after Qualifying 2 which will set the grid for tomorrow’s second race at 15:20.

Qualifying 1 Results