The Mercedes AMG entry of Supercars drivers Craig Lowndes, Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen was in the lead three hours into the Bathurst 12 Hour.

The trio started 18th on the grid but a mixture of safety cars and varying strategies put them ahead of BMW Team Schnitzer and Audi Sport Team Valvoline after an incident-packed first quarter of the race.

Seven-time Bathurst 1000 winner Craig Lowndes led German Martin Tomczyk, driving with Chaz Mostert and Brazil’s Augusto Farfus, with South African Kelvin Van der Linde in the Audi in third.

The Aston Martin of Jake Dennis, which was stripped of pole position overnight, was fourth with Matthieu Vaxiviere at the wheel in front of the Bentley being driven by Frenchman Jules Gounon.

The fancied Ferrari of Nick Percat, Tim Slade and Nick Foster was one of the early causalities when it tangled with Mathijis Bakker at the top of the mountain.

The tussle took both cars out and led to the second safety car of the morning.

From the restart the second Aston Martin car with Andreas Baenziger at the wheel hit the wall at the end of Conrod Straight, leading to back-to-back safety cars.

The Vantage GT3 suffered significant damage and was towed back to the pits with its day more than likely over.

Meanwhile, Brit Dennis was stripped of the Allan Simonsen Pole Position Award he won yesterday for a second breach of the rules.

The team had already been penalised two grid spots for speeding in pit lane and a further infringement shunted him further down the order to 12th for this morning’s race start.

It gave the pole award and first spot on the grid to the Mercedes AMG GT3 of Raffaele Marciello, Maximilian Buhk and Maximilian Goetz.