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Markus Winkelhock has led the way in Practice 5 for the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour as another three cars encountered trouble.
Making his eighth start in the Mount Panorama event, Winkelhock put more than half a second on the field with the fastest time of the weekend.
His 2:03.1336s in fact was the best Bathurst 12 Hour lap time recorded since the 2019 event, when Raffaele Marciello put GruppeM on pole with a 2:02.9348s during the Top 10 Shootout that year.
While it was smooth sailing for the #777 Audi Sport Team Valvoline entry, in which Practice 1 pacesetter Ricardo Feller also got seat time, it wasn’t so positive for various others.
The high-profile Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes didn’t turn a lap due to an engine change being required, while the #47 Supabarn team was also absent as the Melbourne Performance Centre crew continues to upgrade its spare Audi to Evo II specification.
There were two red flags during the hour-long session, the first of which coming at 22-minute mark after Hadrian Morrall found the wall, reportedly at The Dipper.
Morrall did manage to bring his #52 MARC II Mustang back to the pits, sporting left-rear damage, but it would take no further part in the session.
A second red flag brought an early end to proceedings when Mark Rosser came unstuck at the top of The Mountain.
Sharing the #17 Audi R8 Evo II with Nick Percat and Joey Mawson, Rosser was not able to carry on and remained stranded on track.
In the end, it was Ben Barker (#4 Porsche) who wound up as Winkelhock’s nearest threat, on a 2:03.6543s which kept him fractionally ahead of Jules Gounon (#75 Mercedes) in third.
David Reynolds (#24 Audi) was the only other driver into the 2:03s, having set that time early on in the piece on his sixth flying lap, just as Winkelhock had done.
Final practice begins at 10:00 AEST before the field gets stuck into qualifying.
Results: Practice 5
Pos | # | Team | Driver | Car | Class | Fastest lap | Gap |
1 | 777 | Audi Sport Team Valvoline | M.Winkelhock/R.Feller | Audi R8 GT3 Evo II | APA | 2:03.1336 | |
2 | 4 | Grove Racing | B.Barker/B.Grove | Porsche 911 GT3R | APA | 2:03.6543 | +0.5207 |
3 | 75 | SunEnergy1 Racing | L.Stolz/J.Gounon/M.Konrad | Mercedes AMG GT3 | APA | 2:03.6695 | +0.5359 |
4 | 24 | Tony Bates Racing | D.Reynolds/T.Bates | Audi R8 GT3 Evo II | APA | 2:03.9725 | +0.8389 |
5 | 888 | Triple Eight Race Engineering | S.van Gisbergen/B.Feeney/J.Ibrahim | Mercedes AMG GT3 | APA | 2:04.3615 | +1.2279 |
6 | 65 | Coinspot | F.Ross/L.Talbot | Audi R8 GT3 Evo II | APA | 2:04.6172 | +1.4836 |
7 | 19 | Nineteen Corporation Pty Ltd | J.Perkins/W.Brown | Mercedes AMG GT3 | APA | 2:04.6665 | +1.5329 |
8 | 74 | Audi Sport Team Valvoline | Nathanael Berthon | Audi R8 GT3 Evo II | APA | 2:04.8160 | +1.6824 |
9 | 55 | Valmont Racing | D.Padayachee/S.Pires/M.Zalloua | Mercedes AMG GT3 | AAM | 2:06.3421 | +3.2085 |
10 | 95 | MARC Cars Australia | J.Camilleri/D.Fraser | MARC II V8 | I | 2:06.4554 | +3.3218 |
11 | 9 | Hallmarc | D.Fiore/M.Cini | Audi R8 GT3 Evo II | APA | 2:06.5041 | +3.3705 |
12 | 17 | Team BRM | Mark Rosser | Audi R8 GT3 Evo II | APA | 2:07.3550 | +4.2214 |
13 | 45 | RAM Motorsport | M.Sheargold/G.Walden | Mercedes AMG GT3 | AAM | 2:08.6073 | +5.4737 |
14 | 50 | M Motorsport/ Vantage Racing | D.Crampton/T.Harrison | KTM X-Bow GT2 | I | 2:09.3731 | +6.2395 |
15 | 222 | Scott Taylor Motorsport | S.Taylor/C.Lowndes/G.Emery | Porsche 991 GT3 Gen II | C | 2:09.7832 | +6.6496 |
16 | 6 | Wall Racing | A.Deitz/G.Denyer | Lamborghini Huracan GT3 | APA | 2:11.6225 | +8.4889 |
17 | 11 | Our Kloud-UpTo11 Motorsport | I.Padayachee/E.Constantindis/A.Zerefos | Porsche 991 GT3 Gen II | C | 2:17.4822 | +14.3486 |
18 | 52 | Wheels/ FX Racing PNG | Hadrian Morrall | MARC II V8 | I | 2:22.2773 | +19.1437 |