Waters leads dominant Mercedes 1-2-3 in Bathurst 12 Hour qualifying

Mercedes-AMG locked out the top three positions on the grid for the Meguiar's Bathurst 12 Hour in the Pirelli Pole Battle session that set the grid for the GT enduro at Australia's Mount Panorama circuit

No one could touch the Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes of Supercars star Cam Waters, who set the second-fastest pole lap in the history of the 12 Hour with a blistering 2m01.0790s.

The No. 222 will be joined by last year's pole-winning car on the front row, with Craft-Bamboo's Lucas Auer once again impressing to claim second, having started qualifying in the opening group. Two-time race winners 75 Express are once again right in the mix, with Luca Stolz threatening to claim pole, but settling for third.

The first of the non-Mercedes is the Absolute Racing Porsche, with Matt Campbell leaping ahead of the Jamec Racing Audi in the final moments.

The No. 61 EBM Porsche had provisionally qualified 15th, but was disqualified post-session after a technical breach was found on the rear wing. The winning team of 2019 will now start in 34th and last.

The first of the class runners is the No. 93 Wall Racing Lamborghini, with factory pilot Marco Mapelli brilliant on his way to sixth.

Pro-Am pole went the way of Scott Andrews, who after provisionally qualifying second, put the No. 44 Geyer Valmont Racing Mercedes into eighth on the final grid.

KTM Vantage Racing claimed pole in the Invitational class, whilst the McLarens of Volante Rosso and Method Motorsport claimed class poles as the sole entries in Silver and GT4.

• Watch the Meguiar's Bathurst 12 Hour LIVE on RACER Network and the RACER+ app, with coverage starting Saturday at 1:30pm ET.

2026 Meguiar's Bathurst 12 Hour starting grid

1. #222 Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes (Waters/Mostert/Randle)
2. #77 Mercedes-AMG Team Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes (Götz/Aron/Auer)
3. #75 75 Express Mercedes (Habul/Stolz/Gounon)
4. #911 Absolute Racing Porsche (Campbell/Picariello/Buus)
5. #55 Jamec Racing/Team MPC Audi (Schumacher/Haase/Brown)
6. #93 Wall Racing Lamborghini (Mapelli/Wall/D'Alberto/Denyer)
7. #46 Team WRT BMW (Farfus/Rossi/Marciello)
8. #44 Geyer Valmont Racing/Tigani Motorsport Mercedes (Zalloua/Pires/Leitch/Andrews)
9. #64 HRT Ford Racing Ford (Olsen/Mies/Feeney)
10. #6 Mercedes-AMG Team Tigani Motorsport (Ojeda/Schiller/Ellis)
11. #89 Team KRC BMW (Ruan/Oosten/Hesse)
12. #32 Team WRT BMW (Pepper/van der Linde/Weerts
13. #9 Hallmarc/Team MPC Audi (Cini/Holdsworth/Fiore)
14. #101 Q/Team MPC Audi (Quinn/Quinn/Quinn/Quinn)
15. #95 Optimum Motorsport McLaren (Patterson/Barnicoat/Kirchhöfer)
16. #193 Ziggo Sport Tempesta by ARGT Ferrari (Wood/Froggatt/Hui/Patrese)
17. #268 Team BRM Audi (Brooks/Rosser/Peroni/Golding)
18. #26 Arise Racing GT Ferrari (Evans/Rigon/Serra)
19. #45 RAM Motorsport/GWR Australia Mercedes (Hobson/O'Keeffe/Walden)
20. #100 Grove Racing Mercedes (Grove/Allen/Davison)
21. #79 TSUNAMI RT Porsche (Zelger/Babini/Fontana)
22. #47 Supabarn Supermarkets/Tigani Motorsport Mercedes (Koundouris/Koundouris/Russell/Bates)
23. #21 Herberth Motorsport Porsche (Bohn/Renauer/Renauer)
24. #2 Johor Motorsports Racing JMR Corvette (Sims/Catsburg/Bamber)
25. #99 Johor Motorsports Racing JMR Corvette (Ibrahim/Ibrahim/Green/Love)
26. #14 Volante Rosso Motorsport Aston Martin (Fullwood/Hamilton/Pato/Robin)
27. #27 Heart of Racing by SPS Mercedes (James/Barrichello/De Angelis)
28. #15 Volante Rosso Motorsport McLaren (Hall/Gray/Flack/Simmenauer)
29. #50 KTM Vantage Racing KTM (Crampton/Harrison/Wood)
30. #888 Mercedes-AMG Team GMR Mercedes (Engel/Martin/Grenier)
31. #86 High Class Racing Porsche (Li/Fjordbach/Boccolacci)
32. #111 111 Racing IRC (Currie/Donaldson/Stutterd)
33. #42 Method Motorsport McLaren (Madsen/Kunzle/Aghakhani)
34. #61 EBM Porsche (Feller/Heinrich/Bachler)*

*Car #61 had initially qualified 15th, but was disqualified post-session for a technical breach