By alley - Feb 7, 2015, 10:22 AM ET

Bentley pleased with progress in Bathurst debut

Bentley Team M-Sport's brace of Continental GT3s completed

Saturday's qualifying sessions for the Bathurst 12 Hour

with the cars placed in 10th and 21st. In its first visit to the world-renowned Mount Panorama circuit, the Bentley crew had to learn quickly during the four practice sessions on Friday and one on Saturday, all interrupted by red flags as cars succumbed to the tight, twisting track.

Qualifying duties were handled by Steven Kane, on his first visit to the Australian circuit, and Maximilian Buhk, who raced here last year. The #10 car of Kane and British teammates Guy Smith and Matt Bell recorded top-10 times throughout the qualifying session, with Kane able to finish the session with a 2:04:5283.

The #11 Continental GT3, rebuilt overnight by the Bentley Team M-Sport mechanics after damage to the right-front corner after contact with the wall at Turn 3 on Friday, was piloted to P21 on the grid by Buhk with a 2:05.6215. Buhk and fellow Bentley Boys Andy Soucek and Harold Primat will be looking to build from there during the race.

"This is our first time competing here, so we've been starting from scratch in terms of car setup," said Bentley's Director of Motorsport Brian Gush. "Our pace has been improving since the first practice session as we get the Continental GT3 dialed in to the track. There's a long race ahead, and nobody wins in the first hour. Our target is to be on the lead lap for the start of the final hour, and hopefully we can contest the podium positions from there."

The race starts at 5:50 a.m. local time Sunday (Saturday at 1:30 p.m. ET).

Live video streaming and live timing of all of today's action is available:

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for live streaming of the Bathurst 12 Hour

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for live timing