Van Gisbergen beats De Pasquale with a ‘three’ in Practice 4

Shane van Gisbergen has edged Triple Eight Mercedes-AMG team-mate Anton De Pasquale in Practice 4 with the only ‘three’ of the opening day of the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour weekend.

Van Gisbergen in the Pro #888 car and De Pasquale in the Pro-Am #777 car waged a duel of sorts in the final 10 minutes of the hour-long session, with the former dropping down to a 2:03.9694s and the latter achieving a best lap of 2:04.1684s.

Kelvin van der Linde and Christopher Mies put Valvoline Audis third and fourth respectively, while Raffaele Marciello’s 2:04.9404s in the first half-hour stood up for fifth position.

Jamie Whincup had put #888 on top just prior to a red flag 10 minutes into the session, before Maximilian Gotz had a spell in the car and put in a 2:05.7903s.

Van Gisbergen finished the session in Triple Eight’s factory-supported Mercedes-AMG and initially put it back into the lead with a 2:04.8885s just inside the final 15 minutes.

Mies just beat that with a 2:04.8091s a few minutes later before De Pasquale set the fastest lap of the event to that point with a 2:04.4518s with just over five minutes to go.

His next lap was even better at 2:04.3668s, before van Gisbergen closed to just 0.0213s off the pace.

De Pasquale followed up with a new fastest first sector but the Kiwi put the whole lap together in setting the 2:03.9694s.

On his final lap, De Pasquale went even quicker again to the first timing point and while he improved his personal best at the chequered flag, he still fell a couple of tenths short of van Gisbergen.

As all of that was going on, van der Linde clocked a 2:04.4776s in the #222 Audi, which knocked Mies’ 2:04.8091s in the #22 Audi back to fourth.

Marciello had the fastest lap for around a quarter of an hour before van Gisbergen turned up the wick, with Maximilian Buhk and Felipe Fraga both getting miles in the #999 Mercedes-AMG that was fifth fastest all told.

The #4 Grove Porsche ended up sixth courtesy of Ben Barker’s opening runs.

The Brit was quick before the first red flag and immediately usurped Whincup for first position when the session resumed with a 2:05.7664s, but his best was a 2:05.0264s a couple of laps after that.

Rounding out the top 10 were the #2 Valvoline Audi thanks to Dries Vanthoor’s 2:05.0394s on his final run, the #63 Orange1 FFF Lamborghini, the #77 Craft-Bamboo Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG, and the #1 Earl Bamber Motorsport Porsche.

Neither of the Bentley Team M-Sport entries made it onto the race track due to distinct mechanical problems for the two Continental GT3s.

There was one stoppage in the session due to Sergei Afanasiev hitting the wall in the #46 Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG.

The fifth and final practice session will be held tomorrow from 08:45 local time/AEDT.

Results: Practice 4