Brown in the #87 car he shares with Brad Schumacher led an Audi 1-2-3 as FIA Formula 3 podium winner Alex Peroni on debut placed the ACM Finance R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2 ahead of New Zealander Brendon Leitch in the Dayle ITM R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2.
A last gasp lap from Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Peter Hackett in the Romeo-supported Mercedes-AMG GT3 was good enough for fourth ahead of Grove Racing’s Brenton Grove in a Mercedes-AMG GT3 and Chaz Mostert in the first of the new Arise Racing Ferrari 296s.
Last year’s Trophy class winner Renee Gracie set the seventh fastest time in the Team MPC Audi to round off the top seven Pro-Am entries.
The leading Am Class entry was the Valmont Racing Audi shared by Marcel Zalloua and Sergio Pires in eighth, ahead of the second Arise Racing GT Ferrari 296 GT3 driven by Elliott Schutte.
Michael Sheargold and Garth Walden in the Daft Punk-inspired Mercedes-AMG GT3 for RAM Motorsport completed the outright top 10 in addition to being second in Am Class.
Tigani Motorsport’s Pro-Am entry for Paul Lucchitti and Jayden Ojeda rounded out the class field in 11th, with Audi Sport Customer Racing Australia’s Ash Samadi in 12th, the new Black Wolf Racing squad ended up in 13th, ahead of the late addition of Valentino Astuti and Michael Bailey.
James and Theo Koundouris in the Tigani Motorsport Am Class Mercedes-AMG were 15th, with Marc Cini rounding out the runners in the Hallmarc Team MPC Audi.
The Ashley Seward Motorsport-prepared Mercedes-AMG GT3 for Tony Bates didn’t complete a lap.
A brief shower prior to track action led to a damp start to the session, however conditions continued to improve throughout the hour-long run.
Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS returns to the track for a second practice session at 1:30pm AEST this afternoon.