Chaz Mostert has put the #65 Sportsbet Audi R8 LMS to the top of the time sheets on the first practice session at the Bathurst 12 Hour. His benchmark of a 2:04.0879 on the last flying lap of the session set the pace, eclipsing his own previous best the lap prior. His lap time was almost half a second faster than the corresponding fastest time from Practice 1 in 2022; a 2:04.5150 by Ricardo Feller.
The top 8 cars were in the 2:04’s, with Frederic Vervisch slotting the #55 Fuchs Lubricants Racing Audi R8 LMS into second with a 2:04.35, a quarter of a second behind Mostert.
The top Silver-Cup car was the #6 Wall Racing Lamborghini Huracan at the hands of Tony D’Alberto, who put in a 2:04.45 to go third, ahead of the top Pro class car; Matt Campbell setting a 2:04.55 to put the #912 Manthey EBM Porsche in fourth.
Luca Stolz completed the top 5 in the #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes, while Richie Stanaway in the #99 Boost Mobile Mercedes AMG finished 6th. The top BMW was the #32 WRT M4 at the hands of Charles Weerts, ahead of Ricardo Feller’s #777 The Bend Motorsport Park Audi, with Maximillian Goetz in the #888 Supercheap Auto Mercedes and Dylan O’Keeffe in the #10 MYLAND Audi R8 completing the top 10.
The session ran entirely drama free, with no incidents to speak of. Teams took the opportunity to bed brakes and shakedown cars after long transits, with only the SIN R1 spending any significant time in the garage.
Conditions at the moment are bright and sunny, but cool and windy. The track should warm up for Practice 2 at 11:05 AEDT (UTC+11) for Bronze Drivers only.
