A mechanical drama for the #56 Ginetta Australia GT4 and a drive through penalty for the #47 Mercedes of David Russell (for overtaking under safety car conditions) were the biggest talking points in a clean opening 60 minutes of racing.

Race control declared two laps of racing under safety car to help drivers get temperature into their tyres before the green flag was produced under the cover of Sunday morning darkness.

By the time the first hour had passed the starting 10 top grid remained almost the same.

Pole sitter Sheldon van der Linde continued to lead throughout his opening stint in his #23 Team WRT BMW, with Mikael Grenier keeping himself within a second of the leader at all times in the #888 Triple Eight Racing Mercedes.

Maro Engel (#130 Mercedes) stalked the front running pair a further second behind.

Laurens Vanthoor (#912 Porsche) and Luca Stolz (#75 Mercedes) rounded out an unchanged top five.

The only change to the top 10 was Maxime Martin (#46 BMW) overtaking Kelvin van der Linde (#22) in the early stages for seventh place.

Twenty nine cars took to the starting grid.

The only car to not make it to the start was the Vantage Racing KTM X-Bow GT2 which couldn't be repaired in time after contacting the wall at Forrest Elbow during practice.

However, the T2 Racing team were able to get the #20 MARC IRC GT repaired in time to take part in the race following a heavy crash at Sulman Park on Saturday.