Bathurst Hour 2: Porsche takes charge amid crash filled hour

It has been all action in a crazy second hour that claimed the first two victims of the 2025 Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour.

Having quietly made ground across the string of Safety Cars, the #911 Absolute Racing Porsche of Matt Campbell and currently steered by Ayhancan Guven is in control.

Second placed is the Silver Aston Martin entry of Mateo Villagomez but the next contenders are Valentino Rossi and Kevin van der Linde in the factory BMWs, while Will Brown dropped from first to fifth in the Ferrari after a clash with Maximilian Gotz

All of this happened around an incident packed hour that saw Craig Lowndes retire and both the GT4 and Pro Am leaders take each other out in an unfortunate moment 

Sorensen lost it over Skyline, leaving Pro Am leader Zalloua with nowhere to go.

Whilst the McLaren is ruled out, the Audi still harbours hopes of returning and chasing a class podium.

After a quiet first hour, Mostert enjoyed a 9s lead as Feller in the #183 was the first to pit after 28 laps from fourth with Talbot jumping on board, while a lap later Mostert and Gotz came to the lane after 9s separated them at the front of the field.

Brown jumped into the Ferrari and hit the track with an increased 9s lead over Gotz as the #77 double stinted both the driver and rubber.

However, by the end of the out lap Gotz had caught the Ferrari and tried to have a look around the outside of Murrays Corner.

But it did not have the desired result as contact was made with the Mercedes spinning into the gravel. No penalty was give from the Stewards.

With Gotz stuck in the sand the first Safety Car was called at the 70-minute mark, providing a gift for Team WRT and #888.

Both BMWs got a free pit stop, allowing Farfus to lead Rossi at the restart ahead of Martin, who took over the #888 from Engel and Bronze driver Ian James.

But James ran wide at Murrays and with no overlap allowed, Gotz and Brown were making contact again, this time front to rear with the Mercedes a lap down.

There was bigger contact further back with Dean Fiore spinning GT4 driver Ryan Sorensen at Griffins Bend.

The top three charged away with less than 2s separating Farfus, Rossi and Martin, but the latter’s campaign was hit with a pit lane penalty for a Safety Car breach.

They were 18s up the road of next best Brown was 18s further back

Sitting 10th Lowndes became the first victim of the race, with a clash at The Dipper forcing the #222 Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes crawl to a halt just before pit entry.

“Driver error, I was going over skyline and just when I was about to go right and tip it into The Dipper I clipped the right wall,” Lowndes recalled.

“I thought I saved it but it spat across and hit the left rear and it hit the driveshaft out of it so unfortunate we could not get it back. I am gutted for these guys because they have put in a 1000 percent effort.”

There was further drama across the next 15 minutes and it all centred around Habul.

James was sent spinning from the top five to 12th after a hit from Habul at The Chase.

Sixth placed Habul also made contact with Talbot at Griffins Bend despite having indicated to the Audi driver to wave him through.

The pair made it through unscathed but the aftereffect was not clear until later in the lap when Talbot slowed at the top of the mountain.

With a left rear puncture, Talbot had to take an unscheduled stop and fall to 14th as Habul was hit with a 15s penalty.

Then at the 90 minute mark a second Safety Car was required for another race-changing clash.

GT4 leader Sorensen lost it on the exit kerb coming out of McPhillamy Park and speared head on into the inside wall.

The McLaren then came back across the track and straight into the path of the helpless Zalloua.

The contact was enough to destroy the right rear of the Audi and take a blow to their promising day.

Having put the car in the Pro Am lead in his first stint, Zalloua’s co-driver Scott Andrews was devastated, but was still clinging to hope of a podium if they could repair the Audi.

“We will try to get it back out there,” he said.

“They deserve this because we were in the wrong spot at the wrong time. A bloke dropped it in front of us and what do you do. It just sucks.

“If we get it back out there and do 75% we could get a podium.”

Despite the stint only going for around 11 laps, the leaders took the chance to take an early stop.

under the Safety Car plus new Pro Am leader Schuring.

In the lane Rossi in the #46 jumped the #32 entry that now had Kelvin van der Linde behind the wheel.

Later in the yellow Martin and Habul also boxed with the latter missing his marks and needing to be readjusted for fuel to go in.

But critically Gotz returned to the lead lap before boxing, giving the Craft Bamboo team some solace after a tough hour.

Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour leaderboard hour 2