Mostert fastest in Bathurst 12 Hour Practice 1

Chaz Mostert has beaten fellow Audi driver Frederic Vervisch to top spot in Practice 1 for the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour.

Vervisch spent a majority of the 40-minute session holding the fastest lap having clocked a 2:04.3509s just before the halfway mark in the #55 Schumacher Motorsport entry which is competing with PremiAir Racing support, only to be knocked off by Mostert in the final three minutes.

The two-time Bathurst 1000 winner set a 2:04.2600s and a 2:04.0879s on consecutive laps at the end of proceedings in the Melbourne Performance Centre-run #65 R8 LMS GT3 evo II which he is sharing with Fraser Ross and Liam Talbot.

Both the #65 and #55 Audis are Pro-Am entries and it was a Silver class entry taking third courtesy of Tony D’Alberto’s late 2:04.4467s in the #6 Wall Racing Lamborghini.

Fastest of the Pro class entries, but only fourth outright, was the #912 Manthey EMA Porsche thanks to a lap set by Matt Campbell, with the #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes-AMG fifth.

Rounding out the top 10 were the #99 Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG in which Richie Stanaway finished the session, the #32 Team WRT BMW, the #777 MPC Audi, the #888 Supercheap Auto Triple Eight Mercedes-AMG, and the #10 MPC Audi, while GruppeM ended up 11th with the #999 Mercedes-AMG 1.1480s off the pace.

Triple Eight team-mates Jamie Whincup (#99 Mercedes-AMG) and Broc Feeney (#888 Mercedes-AMG) had traded fastest laps initially before GruppeM’s Maro Engel broke into the 2:05s for the first time on this third flying lap with a 2:05.2359s.

Campbell was next to shift the marker when he clocked a 2:04.5499s in the Manthey EMA Porsche, after which Vervisch set a 2:04.3509s in the Schumacher Audi.

Both pitted for set-up changes and Vervisch was still quickest when he had an apparently innocuous tour off the race track at Murray’s Corner in the 27th minute.

Mostert split them when he set a 2:04.3911s in the #65 Melbourne Performance Centre Audi with just under five minutes to go, then followed up with even lower 2:04s laps just as the chequered flag flew.

Practice 2, for Bronze drivers only, starts at 11:05 local time/AEDT.

Results: Practice 1 All drivers