Augusto Farfus has marked his return to the Mountain with a 2:02.9000 to top the first practice session at Mount Panorama, in an incident-free 40-minute session. Farfus put the #32 WRT BMW M4 GT3 at the top just before halfway into the session, in a string of improving laps in competition with eventual second-placed Luca Stolz in the #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes. Stolz was second with a 2:03.2140, with the #888 Team GMR Mercedes with Maro Engel rounding out the top 3.
Valentino Rossi put the #46 WRT BMW into fourth on the final lap of the session, with Lucas Auer putting the #77 Craft Bamboo Mercedes rounding out the top 5.
In overcast and windy conditions but without the risk of rain, the first practice of the weekend saw plenty of teams spending the opening 10 minutes scrubbing tyres and performing shakedown runs. Matt Campbell set the first representative lap with a 2:05 early in the session, before Farfus and Jules Gounon started setting lap times.
The only incident to speak of was a mechanical black flag for the #19 Team 19 Mercedes AMG GT4, who had their splitter come loose early in the session.
6th in the session was Dean Fiore in the #9 Hallmarc Audi – the Bronze-class car ahead of the lead Pro-Am car just behind; the #44 Geyer Valmont Racing Audi with Scott Andrews at the wheel. Silver was headed by the #93 Wall Racing Lamborghini with Tony D’Alberto, while GT4 was headed by the #19 Team 19 Mercedes.
Most cars set representative lap times, except for the #183 Audi which finished the session in 18th, with only 11 laps completed. The car set a 2:05.9, to be over 3 seconds away from the head of the field.
Practice 2 for Bronze Drivers only starts at 10:10 Local Time (UTC+11:00), with 2 more practice sessions this afternoon.
Picture copyright Bathurst 12Hour
