Audis end Friday on top at Queensland Raceway

New Zealander Brendon Leitch set the pace in the Dayle ITM Team MPC Audi R8 LMS GT3 Gen II on a 1m06.852s to hold a 0.0279s advantage from stablemate Will Brown for Shaw and Partners/Kelso Electrical Team MPC.

Leitch paired with Tim Miles will aim to add another win on the board after taking their maiden victory at Phillip Island.

In title contention, Brown and Bathurst local Brad Schumacher took their first win of the season last time out at The Bend and sit seven-points behind in the title race.

Third was the Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Declan Fraser and Peter Hackett, just 0.115s off the pace.

Rounding out the top five were the two Arise Racing GT Ferrari 296 GT3s. Series leaders Liam Talbot and Chaz Mostert led the way from Elliott Schutte partnered by Jaxon Evans.

Fastest in the opening session earlier, Jayden Ojeda was sixth in the Realta/Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to be shared by Paul Lucchitti, while Alex Peroni and Mark Rosser followed sharing the Team BRM/ACM Finance Audi.

The father/son Grove Racing squad of Brenton and Stephen Grove was eighth ahead of the lead Am Class entry of RAM Motorsport’s Mike Sheargold and Garth Walden.

Just a second separated the top nine as just outside of this was the Volante Rosso Motorsport Aston Martin AMR Vantage GT3 of Alex Gardner and Ben Porter.

Renee Gracie and Paul Stokell for OnlyFans Team MPC were 11th ahead of the Harrolds Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo for Ross Poulakis and Chris Batzios, but a puncture during the session stymied their progress.

Ash Samadi was 13th in his Audi as the KMB Motorsport Aston Martin led Trophy Class courtesy of Valentino Astuti and Darren Currie.

Brothers James and Theo Koundouris placed fourth in Am Class for Supabarn Supermarkets/Tigani Motorsport in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo ahead of Hallmarc Team MPC’s Marc Cini, Black Wolf Motorsport’s Shane Woodman and Ben Schoots, while the Scott Taylor Motorsport’s Trophy Class Porsche rounded out the results.

Qualifying is up next for Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS at Queensland Raceway commencing at 9:20am AEST, with racing closing the broadcast on 7plus beginning at 4:20pm AEST.