The Arise Racing GT Ferrari 296 GT3 of Jaxon Evans and Elliott Schutte laid down the marker in the early laps of the opening one-hour session on Friday morning, setting a 1:07.4700s benchmark.
Seemingly a redemption for Ferrari following a struggle for outright pace at The Bend, the prancing horses took the first two spots.
Will Davison/Renee Gracie slotted into second while Broc Feeney/Brad Schumacher were third, heading an Audi trio.
Alex Peroni/Mark Rosser were fourth in the Team BRM Audi, with Peroni contesting his first round of the season after being sidelined by injury.
Ryan Wood/Steve Brooks followed in the second Team BRM machine in fifth spot, with the top five separated by just over 0.3s.
Brendon Leitch/Sergio Pires were the fastest of the Mercedes-AMG contingent in sixth position.
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Rounding out the top 10 was Josh Buchan/Cameron Campbell (Zagame Autosport Ferrari), Jayden Ojeda/Paul Lucchitti (Tigani Mercedes-AMG), Tony D’Alberto/Adrian Dietz (Wall Racing Lamborghini), and Oscar Targett/Justin Tigani (Tigani Mercedes-AMG).
In a largely incident-free session, only one red flag was thrown when Gary Higgon found the Turn 1 gravel in the Trophy Class Melbourne Performance Centre Audi.
Gracie led the entirety of the Bronze driver-only practice session, with a comfortable gap to Lucchitti in second.
The OnlyFans Ferrari set a session-best 1:07.7578s on her final lap of the session.
Lucchitti continued to hold second place before a late surge from Pires put the #44 Mercedes in second, just 0.0880s behind Gracie.
Reigning champion Schumacher was back in the garage after just nine laps thanks to an off-track excursion at Turn 2.
Wood laid down the fastest lap of the day to top Practice 2, setting a 1:06.9240s to put Audi on top.
Audi and Ferrari occupied the top six spots, with Davison/Gracie missing out on the top spot by a slim margin of 0.039s.
Peroni/Rosser were one spot better than the earlier session in third, ahead of Feeney/Schumacher, who found speed in the second half of the session.
Practice 1 leaders Evans/Schutte rounded out the top five in the ARGT Ferrari.
Buchan/Campbell were sixth fastest in the Zagame Autosport entry, while Targett/Tigani were the fastest Mercedes-AMG in seventh position.
D’Alberto/Deitz were eighth fastest in the Lamborghini, ahead of Luke Youlden/Nathan Halstead’s Trophy Class-leading Porsche.
Leitch/Pires rounded out the top 10, capping off a troublesome day of outright speed for Mercedes entries who bemoaned an unfavourable BOP swing.
GT World Challenge Australia returns for the first of two qualifying sessions on Saturday at 9:00am AEST.
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