Erebus Motorsport super-sub Bernd Schneider has dominated the opening day of the Australian GT Championship’s 2012 finale, topping the field by big margins in both of the day’s practice sessions.
The five-time DTM champion was devastatingly fast on his way to a best time of 1:27.9166s, some 2.2 seconds quicker than title contender Klark Quinn (1:30.1160s), and 1.6 seconds ahead of the best V8 Supercar time of the weekend so far.
Schneider led Practice 2 from the moment he set his first flying lap on used tyres after four minutes, and bolted on a new set of Michelins to set the fastest and second-fastest times of the day in the second half of the session.
Quinn, who had traded best times with the German in Practice 1, stayed on pre-marked tyres for the duration.
Championship leader Peter Hackett arguably suffered the misfortune of running the same tyre strategy on an identical SLS AMG GT3 as his temporary Erebus team-mate, thus facilitating a direct comparison, as he finished the day some 3.6 seconds off the pace.
The skinny 10-car field was rounded out by Peter Edwards, Rod Salmon, Tony Quinn, Dean Koutsoumidis, Nick McBride, Peter Conroy, and Scott Taylor.
The GTs will be first on-track on Saturday morning for Qualifying at 0820, ahead of a 30 minute race on each of Saturday and Sunday
