BMW tops first Bathurst 12 Hour practice

The #32 BMW M4 driven by Kelvin van der Linde paced the first practice, clocking a 2:02.900s on his sixth lap of the session.

The South African driver headed the #75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG of Kenny Habul, Jules Gounon, and Luca Stolz.

Stolz set the car’s fastest lap late in the session, logging a 2:03.214s to end up 0.3s off the pace. His teammate Gounon began the session in that car.

“When I was the first car and I was driving the straight, I was like ‘Wow! I’m alone first lap?’ and I said ‘Hello sunshine, hello Mount Panorama, I hope you are good’ and I am happy to be back here on your track, it’s just so nice,” said three-time race winner Gounon.

“I hope I can come many, many, many more years and the event will last many, many, many long years because it’s the best. I love Australia, I love coming to Bondi Beach and having an avocado smash, a flat white with oat milk, we always enjoy it.”

The #888 Team GMR Mercedes-AMG was third and 0.521s away from the session’s quickest time.

Maxime Martin made a late surge in the session to fourth in the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 ahead of Lucas Auer for Craft-Bamboo Racing in its #77 Mercedes-AMG.

The surprise packet of the session was the #9 Hallmarc Racing Audi R8 LMS driven to sixth by Lee Holdsworth.

Behind them was the leading Pro-Am entry driven by Scott Andrews behind the wheel of the Tigani Motorsport Audi.

Tony D’Alberto was the quickest of the Silver entries in 11th for Wall Racing in its Lamborghini Huracan, 1.3s off the pace.

The 40-minute session ran incident-free.

Practice 2, which is for Bronze entries, is scheduled for 10:10am AEDT.

Results: Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour Practice 1