Factory Audi driver Frederic Vervisch has set the fastest ever Friday lap at the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour in a shortened Practice 4 at Mount Panorama.

The Jamec Pem Racing Audi R8 leapt to the top of the times shortly after the halfway point of the session with a 2:03.13s, which was clearly the quickest lap of the day.

Vervisch’s time was quickly followed by a lap posted by the Practice 2 and 3 pacesetting #43 Schnitzer BMW, driven by Marco Wittmann. The time was 0.2s shy of the benchmark.

“Everything is going good. It’s difficult to see the real pace of everyone and the second thing is you have to have a clear lap as well,” said Vervisch.

“Not bad, for a first time for sure better than I expected so it’s good to be in front but you want to be there on Sunday.

“The car is really nice, we did some improvements from earlier in the day to now and I’m more comfortable and confident, it’s really cool. Like everybody describes its really nice.”

Co-driver Chaz Mostert had set the early pace in the entry which has been strong throughout the day.

Audi ended up third in the session following an effort from former Australian GT champion Chris Mies.

The session was red flagged, with 14 minutes remaining, and subsequently called following a multiple car incident at The Chase, involving the Class C Baigent Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 and the #8 Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes.

The BMW, driven by Kent Baigent, was involved in a collision with the Class A Mercedes-AMG piloted by Max Twigg.

Both cars remained in the gravel trap while Baigent clambered from the BMW, that suffered front end damage, but appeared to be winded. The driver has been taken to the circuit’s medical centre as a precaution.

“We went side by side into The Chase. I had a lot of closing speed and I thought he’d stay wide but he just moved across,” Twigg told Speedcafe.com.

“That was a 280km/h spin, sideways through the gravel.”

Audi and BMW continued to dominate the top section of the times with the #37 Audi Sport Team WRT entry fourth, ahead of the BMW Team SRM M6 GT3 of Steven Richards, Timo Glock and Philipp Eng.

After sitting out Practice 3 due to an engine change, the Lago Racing Lamborghini returned to finish sixth, courtesy of David Russell. The car was the top Pro-Am GT3 entrant.

The leading Porsche runner was the Craft Bamboo entry of Earl Bamber, Laurens Vanthoor and Kevin Estre in ninth.

Once again the #3 Audi Sport Customer Racing Australia R8 headed the GT3 Am class.

The #55 Strakka Racing Mercedes-AMG was the quickest from the marque in 11th just ahead of Scott McLaughlin’s YNA Autosport McLaren in 12th spot.

Bentley’s #17 Continental GT3 was 14th ahead of Shane van Gisbergen’s YNA Autosport McLaren.

Class B was topped by Team Carrera Cup Asia, while #46 Prosport Performance Porsche Cayman was the fastest in Class C.

The #67 MARC II Mustang took command of the Invitational class.

The Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour will continue tomorrow (Saturday) with a final 40 minute practice session at 0855 local time.

A 45 minute qualifying session for non Class A entries will take place before a 30 minute Class A hit-out.

The top 10 positions for Sunday’s race will be set via a Top 10 Shootout at 1610 local time/AEDT.

Results: Practice 4

Pos	Num	Team	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Split
1	22	Valvoline / Jamecpem	G.Tander F.Vervisch	Audi R8 LMS	APP	2:03.1368
2	43	BMW M Power	C.Mostert M.Wittmann	BMW M6 GT3	APP	2:03.3886	0:00.2518
3	74	Valvoline Jamecpem	C.Mies C.Haase M.Winkelhock	Audi R8 LMS	APP	2:03.6484	0:00.5116
4	37	Audi Sport Team WRT	R.Frijns S.Leonard	Audi R8 LMS	APP	2:03.7760	0:00.6392
5	100	Laser Plumbing and Electrical	S.Richards T.Glock	BMW M6 GT3	APP	2:03.8655	0:00.7287
6	32	JBS Australia	David Russell	Lamborghini Gallardo	APA	2:04.5086	0:01.3718
7	9	Hallmarc	M.Cini L.Holdsworth	Audi R8 LMS	APA	2:04.6602	0:01.5234
8	777	The Bend Motorsport Park	Y.Shahin T.Enge	Lamborghini Gallardo	APA	2:05.0699	0:01.9331
9	991	EuroMechanica	Earl Bamber	Porsche 911 GT3 R	APP	2:05.1389	0:02.0021
10	3	Audi Sport Customer Racing	A.Samadi D.Gaunt	Audi R8 LMS	AAM	2:05.1658	0:02.0290
11	55	Strakka Racing	L.Williamson C.Waters	Mercedes AMG GT GT3	APP	2:05.3752	0:02.2384
12	47	YNA Autosport	S.McLaughlin A.Watson	McLaren 650S GT3	APA	2:05.4992	0:02.3624
13	19	Daimler Trucks Brisbane	D.Reynolds M.Griffith	Mercedes GT	APA	2:05.6431	0:02.5063
14	17	Bentley Team M-Sport	G.Smith J.Gounon	Bentley Continental	APP	2:06.0037	0:02.8669
15	58	YNA Autosport	S.van Gisbergen C.Ledogar	McLaren 650S GT3	APP	2:06.1756	0:03.0388
16	12	Ice Break & Virgin Australia	D.Calvert-Jones P.Long	Porsche 991 GT3R	APA	2:06.1802	0:03.0434
17	39	Audi Sport Team WRT	Will Davison	Audi R8 LMS	APA	2:06.2338	0:03.0970
18	540	Boston Athletic Club	T.Pappas M.Lieb	Porsche 911 GT3 R	APA	2:06.4693	0:03.3325
19	11	Objective Racing	Jaxon Evans	McLaren 650S	APA	2:06.6409	0:03.5041
20	911	Manthey-Racing	F.Makowiecki D.Werner	Porsche 911	APP	2:06.6721	0:03.5353
21	75	Mercedes-AMG Team SunEnergy1	K.Habul R.Marciello	Mercedes AMG GT3	APP	2:06.8439	0:03.7071
22	18	Bentley Team M-Sport	Vincent Abril	Bentley Continental	APP	2:07.3992	0:04.2624
23	67	Gotzinger Smallgoods	M.Haber A.Cameron	MARC II V8	I	2:07.7428	0:04.6060
24	56	Mercedes-AMG Team Strakka	Maximilian Buhk	Mercedes AMG GT GT3	APP	2:08.6740	0:05.5372
25	66	Daytona Sportscars	B.Schoots A.Macrow	Dodge Viper	I	2:09.0312	0:05.8944
26	29	Haemokinisis/Trofeo Estate	J.Manolios D.Canto	Lamborghini Huracan	APA	2:09.1481	0:06.0113
27	23	Team Carrera Cup Asia	P.Tresidder C.van der Drift	Porsche 991	B	2:09.8960	0:06.7592
28	8	WM Waste	Max Twigg	Mercedes AMG GT3	APA	2:10.2184	0:07.0816
29	6	Safe-T-Stop	R.Gartner J.Bowe	Lamborghini Gallardo	AAM	2:10.4997	0:07.3629
30	69	Supabarn	T.Koundouris A.Walsh	Audi R8 LMS	AAM	2:10.7487	0:07.6119
31	4	Grove Group	S.Grove B.Barker	Porsche GT3 Cup	B	2:11.3228	0:08.1860
32	95	Eastgate Engineering	G.Taunton B.Fullwood	MARC Focus V8	I	2:12.7579	0:09.6211
33	82	“Bolt Masters, Castrol”	Andrew Bagnall	Audi R8 LMS	APA	2:12.8627	0:09.7259
34	65	Daytona Sportscars	Rhys Howell	Daytona Coupe	I	2:13.3973	0:10.2605
35	93	MARC Cars Australia	Garry Jacobson	MARC Mazda V8	I	2:14.8256	0:11.6888
36	85	Paul Reed Smith Guitars	C.Espenlaub J.Foster	Porsche 911GT3-Cup	B	2:15.0424	0:11.9056
37	96	GAP Solutions / SEKTOR	P.Major J.Love	MARC Focus V8	I	2:15.2024	0:12.0656
38	91	MARC Cars Australia	Rod Salmon	MARC II V8	I	2:16.3371	0:13.2003
39	94	MARC Cars Australia	R.Thomson D.Ridge	MARC Mazda V8	I	2:16.5168	0:13.3800
40	46	Prosport Performance GABH	Marco Schelp	Porsche Cayman PRO4	C	2:16.6404	0:13.5036
41	21	The Porsche Broker	D.Stutterd A.Fawcet	Porsche 911	B	2:17.1607	0:14.0239
42	54	MARC Cars Australia	K.Alford C.Parrish	MARC II V8	I	2:17.5306	0:14.3938
43	77	Ginetta Australia	M.Simpson C.Cowham L.Kearns	Ginetta G55	C	2:19.5261	0:16.3893
44	15	Trymax Mowing Systems	K.Baigent A.Blewett	BMW M4 GT4	C	2:20.0488	0:16.9120
45	30	Boat Works	M.Brabham T.Longhurst	BMW M4	C	2:20.6336	0:17.4968
46	44	BP Ultimate	D.Grant X.West	BMW M4 GT4	C	2:25.6467	0:22.5099
47	13	JET Battery Services	Daren Jorgensen	BMW M4 GT4	C	2:26.7099	0:23.5731
48	49	Interlloy	G.Wood C.Hill	KTM X-Bow GT4	C	2:26.7575	0:23.6207
49	48	Interlloy	David Crampton	KTM X-Bow GT4	C	2:30.4035	0:27.2667
50	40	On Track Motorsport	Garry Mennell	Porsche 997 GT3 Cup	B	2:50.5647	0:47.4279

View Speedcafe.com’s comprehensive Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour Form Guide, presented by our platinum partner Mercedes-Benz.