> Result: Practice 1 & 2
Raffaele Marciello and GruppeM Racing gave Mercedes-AMG early bragging rights at the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour by topping the combined times in opening practice at Mount Panorama this morning.
Gold and Platinum-graded drivers sat out the first of two back-to-back sessions, but when the full field emerged it was Marciello who quickly established himself at the top of the order. Indeed, it took just five laps for the Italian to set his and FP2’s benchmark time: 2m.04.7819s.
Kelvin van der Linde was only 0.1s behind in Audi Sport Team Valvoline’s #222 Audi, while Maro Engel finished third despite ending the session in the Turn 3 barriers, which necessitated a brief red flag period while his Craft-Bamboo/Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG was removed.
Another of the Pro Audis finished right behind in fourth while EBM, who won Bathurst 12 months ago, were fastest of the Porsches in fifth.
Bentley, Lamborghini and Nissan also featured in an overall top-10 covered by less than a second.
Third practice gets underway at 12:20 AEDT (GMT +11).