They finished two laps ahead of Clearwater Racing, with Craig Baird behind the wheel to greet the flag who finished. Third place went to the VIP Petfoods Porsche, with van Gisbergen almost a minute behind Baird.

In an exciting finish, rain began to fall in the final 15 minutes, with several teams diving into the pits for wet weather tyres.

It was just one of a race full of incidents, with several leading contenders crashing out or suffering mechanical issues during the gruelling half day event.

There was also a heavy rain shower with two and a half hours remaining in the race which forced almost everybody onto wet tyres for a short period of time.

This is the third consecutive year that the race has been won by an international trio of drivers.

6.50am: It's raining again at Mount Panorama forcing many teams to pit once again with just 10 minutes remaining on the clock for the 2013 Bathurst 12 Hour. 

6.30pm: The battle is well and truly on for second place in the final half hour of the Bathurst 12 Hour.

Shane Van Gisbergen and Craig Baird are battling it out in the VIP Petfoods Porsche and Clearwater Mercedes respectively. The pair are seperated by just 10 seconds and Baird is flying after being given a black flag earlier.

The Erebus of Bernd Schneider is two laps in front while the second Mercedes is in fifth after its problems.

5.59pm: It’s been a wet hour at Mount Panorama with drivers forced into the pits for a tyre change as the rain came down around the track.

Second place runner Lee Holdsworth in the Erebus Motorsport car 63 suffered a broken steering arm and was forced to pit again.

With two laps ahead of third placed Craig Baird his team were working frantically to fix his car and get him back on the track.  

Another two safety cars were also brought out during the storm, with more rain predicted for the mountain before the end of the race.

In the top five at the moment ate 36’s Bernd Schneider, 63’s Lee Holdsworth, 33’s Craig Baird, 5’s Shane Van Gisbergen and 1’s Johan Kristoffersson.

5.01pm: Mercedes are beginning to be seen as firm favourites to take out the Bathurst 12 Hour as we pass the 10 hour mark.

With two hours to go the internationally driven Erebus has the lead, with five-time DTM Championship winner Bernd Schneider behind the wheel.

He has a 1.3 second lead ahead of the sister car, driven by Lee Holdsworth.

However Holdsworth will have to stop sooner for fuel and that gives the lead car the advantage.

Matt Griffin is currently third in the Clearwater Ferrari, a lap behind the Mercedes pair, but Matt Kingsley isn't too far behind in the VIP Petfood Porsche.

The threat of rain is still hanging over the track with reports of dark clouds and lightning near Orange.

4pm: With three hours to go a thunderstorm warning has been issued by the Bureau of Meterology for part of the state, including the Central Tablelands with Bathurst directly mentioned. 

CLICK HERE to view the storm warning. 

In the race the two Mercedes both have a one lap lead with the international drivers leading the Australians. 

The Clearwater Ferrari is one lap behind the race leaders. 

3:23pm: Crowd figures at this year's Bathurst 12 Hour have topped last year's with 22,453 through the gates over the three days. 

The event get's bigger and bigger each year with figures in 2012 at 19,728 and in 2011 at 18,576. 

3:02pm: Another safety car in the last hour with Craig Lowndes in the Rod Salmon Audi breaking a rear hub as he went over the Skyline. 

In total there have now been 10 safety cars during the race. 

Leading the race with four hours to go is Thomas Jaeger in the Erebus Motorsport Mercedes. 

The Erebus team have so far completed 179 laps of the mount, a total of 1109 kilometers. 

2.54pm: 

2.37pm: 

1.57pm: Drama in the final minutes of the sixth hour with the fourth placed Clearwater entry of Mok Weng Sun braking too late into Murray's Corner and hitting the side of the Dean Grant driven Hallmarc Audi R8.

Both cars were spun by the collision but were also able to resume racing.

It remains to see whether there will be long term repercussions for either.

At the front of the field, it is the Phoenix Audi leading from Peter Hackett in the Australian Erebus Mercedes. The international Erebus entry had been leading until a pitstop just minutes ago. 

Those three are the only cars on the lead lap with the Clearwater still holding fourth, a lap behind

1:38pm: How well do you know your 12 hour trivia? Take our quiz here and find out. 

1:08pm: At 1pm we have just crossed the half-way point for the Bathurst 12 Hour, with six hours now left on the clock.

In the lead at the half-way point in Craig Bird in the Clearwater car 33.

So far the leader has completed 135 laps of the circuit.

John Bowe in the 88 Maranello Motorsport car has been taken out of the race in the past hour after he bounced off the wall and lost his wheel in the sand on the top of the mountain.

The safety car was once again brought out, with then race leader car number 33, the Clearwater Ferrari, being the one to miss out after they had picked up a minute lead.

With the safety car out for several laps they lost the lead they had gained.

Just minutes later Phil Hood in car 67, the Motorsport Services car, became stuck at a blind corner along the top of Conrod straight.

An eighth safety car was brought onto the track while the Motorsport Services vehicle was turned around and put back on track. 

12:45pm: The Bathurst 12 Hour Twitter hastag is trending across Australia. If you are tweeting about the race, from the track or from home, don’t forget to use #b12hr.

12.05pm: The Erebus Mercedes of Lee Holdsworth has the lead after five hours of the Bathurst 12 Hour.

There has been a change in the frontrunners though with Craig Baird on a big charge in the Clearwater Ferrari to move into second. Third is the second Erebus with Alexandekwirk Roloff behind the wheel.

The Phoenix and Skwirk Audis are fourth and fifth and the last cars on the lead lap.

The race has definitely settled down form the hectic early stages and now teams are doing everything they can to make sure they are up the front by the closing stages.

10.56am: Another frontrunning team has had their chances destroyed with Maranello Motorsport suffering a front right suspension failure.

The team are working furiously in the garage and if the car does get back on the track it will be well down the order.

It was similar bad news for the other AF Corsa Ferrari, which also lost a lot of time in the pits.

Showing just how treacherous the first third of the race has been, a total of one hour and 15 minutes of the first four hours has been spent behind the safety car

10.33am: Our photographers have been out and about this morning and during the event capturing the cars on the track. 

Click on the image above to view the photos. 

10am: There have been changes at the front of the field as a quarter of the Bathurst 12 Hour is completed.

The Erebus Mercedes of Thomas Jaeger has the led but there have been some interesting developments with the last safety car splitting the leaders in two and effectively allowing the first six cars to go a lap up on the rest of the field.

Jaeger has a 10 second lead to Andreas Simonsen in the Phoenix Audi with Peter Hackett in third but Jaeger is being hasled by Warren Luff and Allan Simonsen, who are sixth and seventh and desperately trying to unlap themselves.

At the end of the hour, there were big problems for the Adam Beechey Nissan GTR, which lost a wheel coming down the Mountain and has gone into the garage.

9.33am: Social media plays a large part in the coverage of the Bathurst 12 Hour. 

CLICK HERE to take a look at posts about the race over a wide variety of social media platforms. 

9.01am: A collision late in the second hour of the Bathurst 12 Hour brought the safety car out once again after an hour of clear running.

While the pair of Erebus Mercedes ran trouble free at the front, the Engstler BMW Z4 saw its race ended when it was hit from behind by the Clearwater Ferrari.

The Maranello Motorsport Ferrari of Peter Edwards had a spin on Hell Corner and was lucky not to be hit, while Eric Lux had a massive scare when his Dragonspeed Audi R8 blew a tyre at the Chase and spun several times at high speed.

At the end of the first hour, it was the Erebus Mercedes of Tom Slade leading the sister car, with Allan Simonsen third in the Maranello Ferrari

8.37am: Tops of 33 degrees are predicted for Bathurst today, with possible thunderstorms forecast for this evening.

There is a 90 per cent chance of rain for the region.  

You can see the live weather radar HERE. 

8.08am: It has been an accident marred first hour  during the Bathurst 12 hour this morning with the safety car brought out on track twice.

Within the first five laps an incident involving cars 68 and 38 saw both taken out of the race.

Three cars were eliminated during the second incident this morning, with others lucky to escape as they avoided the cars strewn across the circuit and the wheel that came off Tony Quinn’s Aston.

The Tony Quinn Aston, David Russell Lamborghini and Chris Porrit Aston Martin were all badly damaged in the incident on Conrod Straight.

With the safety car out twice some of the lead cars have already pitted and it was the Maranello Motorsport Ferrari of Mika Salo in front at the hour mark. 

7am: And they are off and racing. 

CLICK HERE for a photo gallery from the start of the race.

* * *

Mercedes and Ferrari started on the top row for this morning’s Ligui-Moly 12 hour at Mount Panorama.

Fifty cars took to the track for the internationally watched race.

Qualifying for the top 10 spots yesterday were:

1. Slade / Hackett / Holdsworth:Mercedes Benz SLS AMG GT3, 2:06.2730

2. Simonsen / Salo / Bowe / Edwards: Ferrari F458 GT3,+0.2109

3. Weng / Baird / Griffen: Ferrari F458 GT3, +0.6127

4. Lago / Russell / Kox: Lamborghini LP560 GT3,+0.6885

5. Cini / Mies / Eddy / Grant: Audi R8 LMS Ultra, +0.7105

6. Schneider / Jaeger / Roloff: Mercedes Benz SLS AMG GT3, +0.9659

7. Kristoffersson / Primat / Simonsen: Audi R8 LMS Ultra, +1.2942

8. Quinn / Quinn / van Gisbergen: Porsche 911 GT3 R,+1.3285

9. Richards / McMillan / Lilley: Lamborghini LP560 GT3, +1.4108

10. Wyatt / Rugolo / Cioci: Ferrari F458 GT3, +1.6590

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MULTIMEDIA

VIDEO: Bernd Schneider on racing at Mount Panorama

GALLERY: Cars of the Bathurst 12 Hour 

QUIZ: BATHURST 12 HOUR

Bathurst 12 Hour quiz

ENTRY LIST

2013 Bathurst 12 hour entry list