Rossi impresses at Mount Panorama
The SunEnergy1 Mercedes team, headed by Mount Panorama resident Kenny Habul, has won the 2023 LIQUI MOLY Bathurst 12 Hour race, making it back-to-back crowns for the hometown favourites.
Australian Habul, Frenchman Jules Gounon and German Lucas Stolz claimed the win after 12 Hours of gruelling racing at Austalia’s spiritual home of motorsport, Mount Panorama.
The 2023 race was filled with drama until the very end, with Mercedes squad GruppeM Racing holding a 30-second lead until a faulty modem caused data logging issues in Car #999.
The team changed the modem during their final pit stop, but that stopped allowed SunEnergy1 to take advantage and race away, only to hold on and win afte a late surge from rivals.
Jules Gounon, driving for SunEnergy1, inherited the lead after GruppeM’s Maro Engel was forced to serve a drive-through penalty. Gounon held off pressure from Matt Campbell, driving the #912 Porsche, to win the race by 0.9267s after 323 laps covering more than 2000 km.
Luca Stolz and Kenny Habul also secured their second straight win at Mount Panorama, while Gounon secured his third consecutive win after being part of the Bentley crew in 2020. Campbell, Mathieu Jaminet, and Thomas Preining took second place, and Engel took third.
Team WRT finished in fourth and sixth place with MotoGP great Valentino Rossi playing a critical role in his teams 6th placing on his impressive debut behind the wheel at Mount Panorama.
Valentino Rossi
“It’s for sure a positive weekend for me and for the team. It felt great to make this race! I felt good with the track from the beginning and I had good pace. It’s a new car for the team but it’s very good to drive. During the race, especially in the hot conditions, we need a bit more pace, but it’s just the beginning of the season! Bathurst is a mythological place! To have the chance to race here is great, you have to pay attention but it’s very enjoyable to drive.”
Triple Eight Race Engineering’s team headed by Supercars Champion Shane van Gisbergen, finished in fifth place after serving a drive-through penalty.
Melbourne Performance Centre won the Pro-Am class with Chaz Mostert finishing seventh, and Craft-Bamboo Racing slipped to eighth after Daniel Juncadella crashed late in the race.
The top 10 was rounded out by MPC Audi, Triple Eight Mercedes-AMG, and MPC also won the Silver class.
This afternoon’s result rounded out the biggest ever LIQUI MOLY Bathurst 12 Hour event, that recorded a record crowd of 53,446 fans over three days, eclipsing the previous record set in 2019.
