> Result: FP5
Bentley Team M-Sport hit the front in final practice at Mount Panorama this morning ahead of today’s all-important Bathurst 12 Hour qualifying session and Pirelli Top-10 Shootout.
Friday’s sessions were dominated by Mercedes-AMG and Audi, but it was the British manufacturer and Jules Gounon who will head into qualifying with the fastest time of the weekend thus far.
Gounon’s best of 2m03.0801s, set with roughly 20 of the 70 minutes remaining, was three tenths faster than Christopher Haase’s Audi Sport Team Valvoline R8 LMS GT3. The outfit’s second entry driven by Kelvin van der Linde finished less than 0.01s further back in third.
2018 pole-sitter Chaz Mostert vaulted his BMW Team Schnitzer M6 up to fourth in the closing stages at the expense of Earl Bamber Motorsport’s #912 Porsche, which finally demonstrated its potential following a low-key Friday.
KCMG’s #18 Nissan was also a welcome sight inside the top-six, while the first of the Mercedes-AMGs – Team Vodafone’s Triple Eight-run example – finished eighth behind R Motorsport’s Aston Martin.
Elsewhere, HubAuto Corsa’s Ferrari ensured all seven Intercontinental GT Challenge manufacturers finished inside the top-10 and within a second of the ultimate pace.
Qualifying begins at 11:20 local time. Watch it live right here on the Intercontinental GT Challenge website.