Mostert fastest in Bathurst 12 Hour Practice 1

Chaz Mostert has beaten fellow Audi driver Frederic Vervisch to top spot in Practice 1 for the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour.

Vervisch spent a majority of the 40-minute session holding the fastest lap having clocked a 2:04.3509s just before the halfway mark in the #55 Schumacher Motorsport entry which is competing with PremiAir Racing support, only to be knocked off by Mostert in the final three minutes.

The two-time Bathurst 1000 winner set a 2:04.2600s and a 2:04.0879s on consecutive laps at the end of proceedings in the Melbourne Performance Centre-run #65 R8 LMS GT3 evo II which he is sharing with Fraser Ross and Liam Talbot.

Both the #65 and #55 Audis are Pro-Am entries and it was a Silver class entry taking third courtesy of Tony D’Alberto’s late 2:04.4467s in the #6 Wall Racing Lamborghini.

Fastest of the Pro class entries, but only fourth outright, was the #912 Manthey EMA Porsche thanks to a lap set by Matt Campbell, with the #75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes-AMG fifth.

Rounding out the top 10 were the #99 Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG in which Richie Stanaway finished the session, the #32 Team WRT BMW, the #777 MPC Audi, the #888 Supercheap Auto Triple Eight Mercedes-AMG, and the #10 MPC Audi, while GruppeM ended up 11th with the #999 Mercedes-AMG 1.1480s off the pace.

Triple Eight team-mates Jamie Whincup (#99 Mercedes-AMG) and Broc Feeney (#888 Mercedes-AMG) had traded fastest laps initially before GruppeM’s Maro Engel broke into the 2:05s for the first time on this third flying lap with a 2:05.2359s.

Campbell was next to shift the marker when he clocked a 2:04.5499s in the Manthey EMA Porsche, after which Vervisch set a 2:04.3509s in the Schumacher Audi.

Both pitted for set-up changes and Vervisch was still quickest when he had an apparently innocuous tour off the race track at Murray’s Corner in the 27th minute.

Mostert split them when he set a 2:04.3911s in the #65 Melbourne Performance Centre Audi with just under five minutes to go, then followed up with even lower 2:04s laps just as the chequered flag flew.

Practice 2, for Bronze drivers only, starts at 11:05 local time/AEDT.

Results: Practice 1 All drivers

Pos	Num	Team/Sponsor	Driver(s)	Car	Cls	Fastest lap	Split
1	65	Sportsbet Team MPC	C.Mostert/F.Ross	Audi R8 LMS Evo 2	APA	2:04.0879
2	55	FUCHS Lubricants Racing	Frederic Vervisch	Audi R8 LMS Evo 2	APA	2:04.3509	0:00.2630
3	6	Wall Racing	T.D’Alberto/D.Wall	Lamborghini Huracan	AS	2:04.4467	0:00.3588
4	912	Manthey EMA	M.Campbell/T.Preining	Porsche GT3 R Spec 2	APP	2:04.5499	0:00.4620
5	75	Sun Energy 1	J.Gounon/L.Stolz	Mercedes Benz AMG GT	APP	2:04.8037	0:00.7158
6	99	Boost Mobile Racing	J.Whincup/R.Stanaway	Mercedes Benz AMG GT	APA	2:04.8458	0:00.7579
7	32	Team WRT	D.Vanthoor/C.Weerts	BMW M4GT3	APP	2:04.9269	0:00.8390
8	777	The Bend Motorsport Park / MPC	C.Mies/R.Feller	Audi R8 LMS Evo 2	APA	2:04.9465	0:00.8586
9	888	Supercheap Auto Racing	B.Feeney/M.Gotz	Mercedes Benz AMG GT	APP	2:05.1362	0:01.0483
10	10	MYLAND Team IMS	D.Gaunt/D.O’Keeffe	Audi R8 LMS Evo 2	AS	2:05.1885	0:01.1006
11	999	GruppeM Racing	M.Engel/M.Grenier	Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO	APP	2:05.2359	0:01.1480
12	4	Grove Racing	A.De Pasquale/B.Grove	Porsche  911 GT3R	APA	2:05.4175	0:01.3296
13	24	Tony Bates Racing /Makita	T.Bates/J.Love	Mercedes-AMG GT3	APA	2:05.6395	0:01.5516
14	74	The Bend Motorsport Park / MPC	Christopher Haase	Audi R8 LMS Evo 2	APP	2:05.7337	0:01.6458
15	222	Scott Taylor Motorsport	C.Lowndes/A.Davison	Mercedes Benz AMG GT	APA	2:05.8932	0:01.8053
16	46	Team WRT	A.Farfus/M.Martin	BMW M4GT3	APP	2:05.9481	0:01.8602
17	47	Supabarn Team MPC	D.Russell/J.Webb	Audi R8 LMS Evo 2	AS	2:06.2200	0:02.1321
18	9	Hallmarc Team MPC	L.Holdsworth/D.Fiore	Audi R8 LMS Evo 2	APA	2:06.3453	0:02.2574
19	77	Mercedes-AMG Craft-Bamboo	Daniel Juncadella	Mercedes-AMG GT3	APP	2:06.9983	0:02.9104
20	44	Valmont Racing	D.Padayachee/A.Cameron	Mercedes Benz AMG GT	AS	2:07.6001	0:03.5122
21	50	MMotorsport /Vantage Racing	T.Harrison/J.Ojeda	KTM GT XBOW	I	2:08.3268	0:04.2389
22	52	Wheels /FX Racing	Cameron McLeod	MARC II V8	I	2:09.3321	0:05.2442
23	111	111Racing/MRA Motorsport	Darren Currie	MARC I Mazda	I	2:12.9107	0:08.8228
24	66	Daytona Sports Cars	B.Schoots/D.Thomas	SIN R1	I	2:14.2703	0:10.1824
25	19	Nineteen Corporation	C.Pancione/F.Schiller	Mercedes Benz  A45	I	2:14.5781	0:10.4902
26	101	Harrolds Volante Rosso M’Sport	Ross Poulakis	Mercedes Benz AMG GT	AS	2:16.4638	0:12.3759