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Ricardo Feller has put Audi on top in the first Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour session in more than two years.
The 21-year-old Swiss star was the fastest out of the blocks as well as at the end of the half-hour Practice 1 in a promising start for the #777 entry, which he is sharing with Markus Winkelhock and Yasser Shahin.
On his Mount Panorama debut, Feller wound up atop the timesheets with a 2:04.5150s set after the chequered flag, to dispatch 2020 winner Jules Gounon (#75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes).
In a late change to the schedule, Practice 1 was switched to an all-in affair, with Practice 2 (starting 10:45 AEST) now reserved for Bronze drivers only.
Greeted with a semi-wet track following some early morning rain, Feller went to the top on the first flying runs with a relatively pedestrian 2:16.2621s.
Lap times tumbled with every passing lap as conditions improved, with Ben Barker (#4 Grove Racing Porsche GTR 3), David Wall (#6 Wall Racing Lamborghini Huracan), and Luca Stolz (#75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes) spending time at the top.
By the seventh time around The Mountain, Feller had lowered the benchmark to a 2:04.9082s, which remained intact until the dying stages.
Tony D’Alberto put the #6 Huracan up to fourth, and then second, in a strong showing before the international contingent geared up for one last crack.
Gounon, who had taken from Stolz, had threatened to improve on numerous occasions before coming good with a final effort of 2:04.9079s to go to the top by a mere 0.0003s.
However, Feller was not done yet, lobbing in a lap which would give him the ascendancy to the tune of four tenths.
D’Alberto’s 2:05.1804s remained good enough for third, ahead of Cameron Waters (#24 C Tech Laser Audi R8 EVO II) and David Russell (#47 Supabarn Audi R8 EVO II).
Shane van Gisbergen was seventh in the #888 Mercedes AMG GT3, as all 20 cars hit the track.
Results: Practice 1
| Pos | # | Team | Driver | Car | Class | Fastest lap | Gap |
| 1 | 777 | Audi Sport Team Valvoline | Ricardo Feller | Audi R8 GT3 Evo II | APA | 2:04.5150 | |
| 2 | 75 | SunEnergy1 Racing | L.Stolz/J.Gounon | Mercedes AMG GT3 | APA | 2:04.9079 | +0.3929 |
| 3 | 6 | Wall Racing | T.D’Alberto/D.Wall | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | APA | 2:05.1804 | +0.6654 |
| 4 | 24 | Tony Bates Racing | Cameron Waters | Audi R8 GT3 Evo II | APA | 2:05.1962 | +0.6812 |
| 5 | 47 | Supabarn | David Russell | Audi R8 GT3 Evo II | AAM | 2:05.2990 | +0.7840 |
| 6 | 65 | Coinspot | Fraser Ross | Audi R8 GT3 Evo II | APA | 2:05.4383 | +0.9233 |
| 7 | 888 | Triple Eight Race Engineering | Shane van Gisbergen | Mercedes AMG GT3 | APA | 2:05.4575 | +0.9425 |
| 8 | 91 | Mercedes-AMG Team Craft-Bamboo Racing | M.Engel/D.Juncadella | Mercedes AMG GT3 | APA | 2:05.7827 | +1.2677 |
| 9 | 17 | Team BRM | Joey Mawson | Audi R8 GT3 Evo II | APA | 2:05.8941 | +1.3791 |
| 10 | 74 | Audi Sport Team Valvoline | Nathanael Berthon | Audi R8 GT3 Evo II | APA | 2:06.4302 | +1.9152 |
| 11 | 4 | Grove Racing | B.Barker/S.Grove | Porsche 911 GT3R | APA | 2:06.4858 | +1.9708 |
| 12 | 55 | Valmont Racing | Duvashen Padayachee | Mercedes AMG GT3 | AAM | 2:06.9362 | +2.4212 |
| 13 | 50 | M Motorsport/ Vantage Racing | Dale Wood | KTM X-Bow GT2 | I | 2:06.9561 | +2.4411 |
| 14 | 19 | Nineteen Corporation Pty Ltd | Will Brown | Mercedes AMG GT3 | APA | 2:07.5455 | +3.0305 |
| 15 | 9 | Hallmarc | L.Holdsworth/D.Fiore | Audi R8 GT3 Evo II | APA | 2:07.9238 | +0.4088 |
| 16 | 222 | Scott Taylor Motorsport | Craig Lowndes | Porsche 991 GT3 Gen II | C | 2:09.0624 | +4.5474 |
| 17 | 95 | MARC Cars Australia | Geoffrey Taunton | MARC II V8 | I | 2:10.4323 | +5.9173 |
| 18 | 45 | RAM Motorsport | G.Walden/B.Hobson | Mercedes AMG GT3 | AAM | 2:11.6765 | +7.1615 |
| 19 | 52 | Wheels/ FX Racing PNG | K.Kassulke/H.Morrall | MARC II V8 | I | 2:15.6805 | +11.1655 |
| 20 | 11 | Our Kloud-UpTo11 Motorsport | Eric Constantindis | Porsche 991 GT3 Gen II | C | 2:21.5406 | +17.0256 |
Results to follow
