Vilander, Ferrari on pole for Bathurst 12 Hour

There is only one Ferrari on the grid for the Bathurst 12 Hour – and it will start form pole position.

Toni Vilander starred in qualifying and in the Top 10 Shoot Out, in which cars ran one at a time, Vilander lapped in 2:02.861s in the 488 GT3. In doing so the Finn collected the Allan Simonsen Trophy, named for the man who raced for Maranello in Australia.

"The track temps were very high," said Vilander. "We were looking for the right things all the time. It was awesome. It is good visibility for the sport, but today was something interesting."

Vilander was outstanding in the 20-minute qualifying session for only Class A (GT3) cars. After an aborted first lap he sped to a 2:02.219s, holding off the BMWs of Chaz Mostert and BMW factory driver Marco Wittman. Mostert, the Supercars star who is having his maiden GT appearance in a privateer BMW run by MARC Cars, alongside their five-car fleet of V8-powered Mazda 3 and Ford Focus Class I (Invitation) cars.

Held in hot conditions, with track temperatures up to 110 degrees, the Top 10 was an unpredictable session.

Mostert was a fine second, and will start the race in the car he will share with Max Twigg and Morgan Haber. Factory BMW driver Marco Wittman qualified third in Steven Richards's BMW M6 (pictured, BMW Motorsport photo), that they will share with Supercars star Mark Winterbottom, who is also making his first GT start.

The big improver in the first-ever Shoot Out was Ash Walsh. The Australian Carrera Cup regular was eighth in the all-in session but jumped all the way to fourth in the Miedecke Stone Aston Martin V12 Vantage that he will share with George Miedecke and Amateur driver Tony Bates.

Fifth was Maxime Soulet in the Bentley Continental GT3 he shares with factory co-drivers Andy Soucet and Vincent Abril, ahead of defending race winners, Tekno Autosports McLaren 650S GT3, with 2016 race winner Alvaro Parente.

Two Porsches made the top 10. Former Le Mans winner Earl Bamber, was seventh in the Porsche-backed Walkinshaw Racing 911 GT3 R he will race with Laurens Vanthoors and Kevin Estre. Teammate Matt Campbell, the 2016 Australian Carrera Cup Champion, was ninth, sharing his GT3 R with Pat Long, Marc Lieb and Los Angeles-based Australian team owner, David Calvert-Jones.

Timo Glock was eighth, after a near-miss during qualifying. He was nearly involved in a last-minute collision with one of the Nissans, but he will start ahead of the only Audi to make the Top 10, Nathan Antunes GT Motorsport Audi R8 LMS Elliot Barbour and car owner Greg Taylor.

The qualifying session was almost as notable for the cars that did not make as for the ones that did. Defending race winners Tekno Autosports (pictured, image courtesy of the team) will line up 11th, the team's cause not assisted by an off in the final lap of the "proper" session when Ben Barnicoat spun the sister McLaren 650S on Conrod Straight.

No better off was Nissan Motorsport. The 2014 winners brought two GT-R GT3s to Bathurst this year and they will line up only 12th and 14th, after both were crashed in the build-up to qualifying.

Florian Strauss's car underwent a complete rebuilt after a crash on Friday while Nissan factory driver Katsumasa Chiyo tore a front corner off his car on Saturday morning.

Neither of the Jamec Pem Audi's made the 10, in spite of the efforts of Audi works driver Christopher Mies and Supercars star Garth Tander. But the biggest shock came from Shane van Gisbergen in the Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes. The Supercars Champion and GT regular was looking set for a top-10 time until he ran off the road and lost time, leaving him only 18th in the car he will share with Craig Baird and Maro Engel.

In other classes, the #4 Grove Porsche of Stephen Grove/Ben Barker/Alex Imperatori led the way in Class B. In Class C for GT4 cars, M Motorsport's Justin McMillan/Glenn Wood#/Tomas Enge/Reinhard Kofler took pole in the first appearance in Australia of the KTM X-Bow. In the Invitation Class I Jamie Augustine/Ben Schoots/Dean Lillie were fastest in a Dodge Viper.

Bathurst 12 Hour Qualifying

1 Toni Vilander Maranello Motorsport Ferrari 488 GT3 2:02.861
2 Chaz Mostert MARC Cars BMW M6 GT3 2:03.055s
3 Marco Wittman Team SRM BMW M6 GT3 2:03.249s
4 Ash Walsh Miedecke Stone Aston Martin V12 Vantage 2:03.823s
5 Maxime Soulet Bentley Continental GT3 2:03.968s
6 Alvaro Parente Tekno Autosports McLaren 650S GT3 2:03.978s
7 Earl Bamber Walkinshaw Racing 911 GT3 R 2:04.967s
8 Timo Glock Team SRM BMW M6 GT3 2:04.288s
9 Matt Campbell Competition Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R 2:04.366s
10 Nathan Antunes GT Motorsport Audi R8 LMS 2:04.473s