Reynolds put Mercedes-AMG on top in Practice 3 at Bathurst

David Reynolds has gone fastest in Practice 3 for the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour with the only ‘four’ of the session in an older-specification Mercedes-AMG GT3.

The SunEnergy1 entry which Reynolds piloted was one of four Mercs in the top five at the end of the 60-minute session after Shane van Gisbergen jumped 11 positions from 16th with the chequered flag out in the #888 Triple Eight Race Engineering entry.

Luca Stolz and Maro Engel were both quick in the rebuilt #77 Craft-Bamboo Black Falcon Mercedes-AMG, with the former setting a 2:05.1670s which had him within a quarter of a second of Reynolds’ 2:04.9312s all told.

Joao-Paulo de Oliveira was the odd man out with a third-best 2:05.2972s in the #18 KCMG Nissan, while Felipe Fraga earned fourth position in the #999 GruppeM Mercedes-AMG.

Christopher Haase was quickest early on with a 2:09.1204s on his first flyer in the #2 Valvoline Audi and a 2:06.2662s on his second.

Earl Bamber took over top spot in the 11th minute when he rolled out a 2:06.2633s in the #1 Earl Bamber Motorsport Porsche, before Dirk Werner took another Porsche in the form of the #912 Absolute Racing entry to third at just 0.1497s slower.

Engel had hit the wall due to a right-rear suspension failure in Car #77 in the preceding session but the German was immediately on the pace when he finally entered the track in Practice 3.

He jumped to the lead with a 2:05.3388s on Craft-Bamboo Black Falcon’s first lap of the session, almost a quarter of an hour in, and backed that up with a 2:05.6133s a handful of laps later.

There had been much other movement at the top of the timing screen between those two efforts, with Nick Foster (#777 Triple Eight Mercedes-AMG) clocking a 2:05.9630s, Matt Campbell (#911 Absolute Racing Porsche) a 2:05.7764s, and Werner a 2:05.8768s.

De Oliveira also snuck in a 2:05.2972s which put the sole running KCMG Nissan into first position, from the #77 Mercedes-AMG, the #911 and #912 Porsches, and the #777 Mercedes-AMG as the session moved from the first half-hour into the second.

The top end of town tightened further when Bamber laid down a 2:05.7588s to go third, then Fraga pipped him with a 2:05.4443s in the GruppeM Mercedes-AMG in the 38th minute.

Stolz established a new benchmark when he wheeled the #77 Mercedes-AMG to a 2:05.1670s in the 40th minute, before Reynolds clocked the session-best 2:04.9312s in the 49th minute.

Jamie Whincup and van Gisbergen shared the running in the #888 Mercedes-AMG, which drifted from the back end of the top 10 to the mid-teens until van Gisbergen put in the 2:05.5137s at the very end.

Their Triple Eight Supercars stablemate Craig Lowndes ended the session in the #1 EBM Porsche but it was Bamber’s effort just after the halfway mark which left it sixth on the timesheet.

Rounding out the top 10 in an uninterrupted session was the #911 Porsche, the #22 Valvoline Audi due to a late lap from Mirko Bortolotti, the #912 Porsche, and the #2 Audi.

Practice 4, another hour-long session, is scheduled for 15:05 local time/AEDT.

Results: Practice 3

Pos	Num	Team/Sponsor	Driver(s)	Car	Cls	Fastest lap	Split
1	75	SunEnergy1 Racing	K.Habul/M.Konrad/D.Reynolds	Mercedes AMG GT3	PAM	2:04.9312
2	77	Mercedes-AMG Craft-Bamboo	M.Engel/L.Stolz/Y.Buurman	Mercedes AMG GT3	PRO	2:05.1670	0:00.2358
3	18	KCMG	J.De Oliveira/A.Imperatori	Nissan GTR Nismo GT	PRO	2:05.2972	0:00.3660
4	999	Mercedes-AMG GruppeM Racing	F.Fraga/M.Buhk/R.Marciello	Mercedes AMG GT3	PRO	2:05.4443	0:00.5131
5	888	Mercedes-AMG Team Triple Eight	S.van Gisbergen/J.Whincup	Mercedes AMG GT3	PRO	2:05.5137	0:00.5825
6	1	Earl Bamber Motorsport	E.Bamber/C.Lowndes	Porsche GT3 R	PRO	2:05.7588	0:00.8276
7	911	Absolute Racing	M.Jaminet/P.Pilet/M.Campbell	Porsche GT3 R	PRO	2:05.7764	0:00.8452
8	22	Audi Sport Team Valvoline	G.Tander/M.Bortolotti	Audi R8 – LMS GT3	PRO	2:05.8558	0:00.9246
9	912	Absolute Racing	D.Werner/M.Cairoli/T.Preining	Porsche GT3 R	PRO	2:05.8768	0:00.9456
10	2	Audi Sport Team Valvoline	C.Haase/F.Vervisch	Audi R8 – LMS GT3	PRO	2:05.8899	0:00.9587
11	27	Hub Auto Corsa	T.Slade/D.Serra	Ferrari 488 GT3	PRO	2:05.9101	0:00.9789
12	777	The Bend Motorsport Park	Y.Shahin/N.Foster/A.De Pasquale	Mercedes AMG GT3	PAM	2:05.9630	0:01.0318
13	46	Black Falcon	P.Assenheimer/S.Afanasiev/M.Beretta	Mercedes AMG GT3	SIL	2:06.0647	0:01.1335
14	7	Bentley Team M-Sport	Jules Gounon	Bentley Continental	PRO	2:06.1753	0:01.2441
15	12	NED Racing Team	D.Calvert-Jones/R.Dumas	Porsche GT3 R	PAM	2:06.1785	0:01.2473
16	222	Audi Sport Team Valvoline	M.Drudi/M.Winkelhock	Audi R8 – LMS GT3	PRO	2:06.3312	0:01.4000
17	63	Orange 1 FFF Racing Team	A.Caldarelli/D.Lind	Lamborghini Huracan	PRO	2:06.5502	0:01.6190
18	8	Bentley Team M-Sport	Alex Buncombe	Bentley Continental	PRO	2:06.7135	0:01.7823
19	59	59Racing	D.Storey/F.Ross	McLaren 720S GT3	SIL	2:06.8522	0:01.9210
20	60	59Racing/ EMA Racing	A.Parente/T.Blomqvist	McLaren 720S GT3	PRO	2:07.1790	0:02.2478
21	30	Honda Racing Team JAS	D.Cameron/R.van der Zande/M.Farnbacher	Acura/ Honda NSX GT3	PRO	2:07.3236	0:02.3924
22	34	Walkenhorst Motorsport	A.Farfus/C.Mostert	BMW M6 GT3	PRO	2:07.3557	0:02.4245
23	4	Team Australia Grove Racing	Stephen Grove	Porsche GT3 R	PAM	2:07.3599	0:02.4287
24	9	Hallmarc	M.Cini/D.Fiore	Audi R8 – LMS GT3	PAM	2:07.7590	0:02.8278
25	29	Trofeo Motorsport	L.Talbot/M.Zalloua	Lamborghini Huracan	SIL	2:07.7736	0:02.8424
26	76	R – Motorsport	J.Dennis/R.Kelly/S.Dixon	Aston Martin Vantage	PRO	2:07.9174	0:02.9862
27	188	Garage 59	A.West/M.Martin	Aston Martin Vantage	PAM	2:08.2901	0:03.3589
28	20	Local Search	A.Hargraves/D.Jilesen/S.Owen	MARC II	INV	2:08.5237	0:03.5925
29	91	Scandia Racer Industries	A.Cameron/B.Feeney	MARC II	INV	2:08.5454	0:03.6142
30	62	R – Motorsport	L.Ghiotto/O.Caldwell	Aston Martin Vantage	PRO	2:08.7662	0:03.8350
31	6	Wall Racing	A.Deitz/J.Westwood	Lamborghini Huracan	SIL	2:08.9067	0:03.9755
32	159	Garage 59	A.Watson/O.Hart/R.De Angelis	Aston Martin Vantage	SIL	2:08.9970	0:04.0658
33	95	MARC Cars Australia	G.Taunton/B.Hall/B.Schumacher	MARC II	INV	2:10.5810	0:05.6498
34	24	Bostik Australia	T.Bates/G.Emery/M.Twigg	Audi R8 – LMS GT3	SIL	2:10.9413	0:06.0101
35	92	Scandia Racer Industries	H.Morrall/J.Kaye	MARC II	INV	2:11.2913	0:06.3601
36	96	Hobson Motorsport	K.Kostecki/G.Walden	Nissan GT-R NISMO GT	SIL	2:11.7069	0:06.7757
37	13	JET Battery Services	D.Jorgensen/B.Strom	BMW M4 GT4	GT4	2:18.3848	0:13.4536
38	19	usedtrucks.com.au	M.Griffith/H.Newey	Mercedes AMG GT4	GT4	2:20.8805	0:15.9493