> Result: Practice 5
Mercedes-AMG looked set to lock out the top-three places in penultimate practice at Mount Panorama this morning before Matt Campbell banged in the fastest time of the weekend with just five minutes remaining.
The Manthey EMA Porsche he shares with Mathieu Jaminet and Thomas Preining had briefly led earlier in the 60-minute session before a flurry of quick times – headed by Jules Gounon – pushed the car down the order.
The Frenchman was the first driver to dip below 2m03s and comfortably faster than anyone had managed on Friday. But his 2m02.8282s was ultimately eclipsed by the last driver to beat him at the 12 Hour.
Campbell’s 2m02.7513s was just 0.07s quicker than the SunEnergy1 Mercedes-AMG, which might have gone quicker still in Luca Stolz’s hands after the German set purple first and second sectors.
Still, Gounon’s time remained just fast enough to keep Richie Stanaway at bay after the Kiwi lapped Supercheap Auto’s entry three hundredths slower, while Raffaele Marciello completed Mercedes-AMG’s two-three-four by setting GruppeM’s best time on his final run.
The best of the Audis was next up, MPC’s Pro entry beating the Silver class example driven by David Reynolds.
BMW and WRT continued to acclimatise to the unique demands of Mount Panorama by lapping eighth and ninth.
Final practice begins at 10:50 AEDT (GMT +11). Watch it live on SRO’s GT World YouTube channel.