> Result: Practice 4
Triple Eight’s Shane van Gisbergen and Anton de Pasquale ensured Mercedes-AMG completed a dominant day at Bathurst by finishing one-two in fourth practice
The pair traded fastest times during a frantic final 10 minutes before the Kiwi settled the matter by posting the weekend’s first sub-2m04s lap. His best of 2m03.9649s was 0.2s quicker than De Pasquale who topped the Pro/Am class in second overall.
Van Gisbergen’s new benchmark followed those from fellow Mercedes-AMG drivers Raffaele Marciello and David Reynolds, who had earlier topped FP2 and 3.
Friday’s final session was only 10 minutes old when Sergey Afanasiev triggered a short stoppage. Jamie Whincup and Ben Barker both spent time at the top thereafter before GruppeM’s Marciello triggered a late scramble with 2:04.9404s. But from then on it was all about De Pasquale vs Van Gisbergen who pushed each other to consecutive fastest times.
Behind, Audi Sport Team Valvoline’s Kelvin van der Linde continued his impressive start by again finishing in the top-three ahead of team-mate Chris Mies and Marciello.
Barker remained best-placed of the Porsches in sixth while Marco Mapelli helped Lamborghini finish eighth.
However, there was bad news for KCMG who have been forced to withdraw their #35 Nissan following Josh Burdon’s accident in FP1.
Practice concludes with a fifth session tomorrow morning ahead of qualifying and Pole Shootout.