Mercedes quickest in today’s practice for Bathurst 12 Hour

GruppeM Motorsport Mercedes
GruppeM Motorsport Mercedes

Hong Kong-based Mercedes outfit GruppeM Motorsport has taken the practice honors in a tight finish to the opening day at the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour.

The AMG GT3 shared by Italian Raffaele Marciello and Germans Maximilian Goetz and Maximilian Buhk recorded the quickest time of the day in the fourth and final hit-out of the day.

Close behind were entries featuring Supercars Bathurst 1000 winners, with Garth Tander's Audi second, Chaz Mostert's BMW third and the Ferrari driven by Nick Percat and Tim Slade fourth.

2017 Bathurst winning duo David Reynolds and Luke Youlden helped record the ninth best overall time in their Mercedes entry, while the Mercedes driven by Craig Lowndes, Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen heads into Saturday as the 12th quickest entry following today's four combined practice session times.

Team GruppeM Racing jumped up to the top of the time sheets with quick Italian Raffaele Marciello behind the wheel of the bright yellow and green #999.

Marciello’s time from P2 stood until the end of the fourth practice session despite some challenges in the dying moments of today's final session.

Following practice Marciello said "It’s still a long weekend, normally my team is pretty quick at any track we go. Everything looks good, the team is good, it’s just to stay safe until the race and the last hour."

#22 Audi
#22 Audi

“I know the car pretty well, I did 25 races last year. I have every confidence in the world. We are all three really quick, we just need to stay out of trouble.

"It’s more to put pressure on others than on us because we know where we are and what we can do. We know we can win, so do two or three teams there. We know where we are."

After clocking up the fourth quickest time of the day, Supercar driver Tim Slade said “It was quite cool seeing the time sheets in all the sessions showing the different brands of cars so close. They all make their times on different parts of the circuit."

“The Ferrari has some pretty good history around the mountain. Nick has done a lot of miles in the car and GT3 cars in the last 18 months and I was lucky to do half a dozen races in Asia last year. And Nick has got some laps in before Christmas."

Action resumes on Saturday morning at 8:35 local time as the teams get in their final runs before qualifying and the all-important top ten shootout tomorrow afternoon.

The Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour will be broadcast on 7mate on Saturday afternoon for the Top Ten Shootout (check local guides) and from 5:30am 6:00pm AEDT on Sunday.

Results: Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour, Practice 4

Pos Car Team Driver Car Class Fastest Lap Gap
1 999 Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Raci M.Buhk/R.Marciello/M.Goetz Mercedes AMG GT3 PP 2:03.588 00.000s
2 22 Audi Sport Team Valvoline K.van der Linde/G.Tander Audi R8 LMS PP 2:03.630 00.042
3 42 BMW M Motorsport A.Farfus/M.Tomczyk BMW M6 GT3 PP 2:03.802 00.214
4 27 HubAuto Corsa N.Foster/T.Slade/N.Percat Ferrari 488 GT3 PP 2:03.988 00.400
5 77 Team Craft Bamboo Black Falcon M.Engel/L.Stolz/G.Paffett Mercedes AMG GT3 PP 2:04.023 00.435
6 108 Bentley Team M-Sport A.Soucek/V.Abril Bentley Continental PP 2:04.221 00.633
7 62 “Aston Martin St. Gallen, B&O, J.Dennis/M.Vaxiviere/M.Kirchhoefer Aston Martin Vantage PP 2:04.495 00.907
8 2 Audi Sport Team Valvoline C.Mies/C.Haase/M.Winkelhock Audi R8 LMS PP 2:04.540 00.952
9 777 The Bend Motorsport Park David Reynolds (AUS) Mercedes AMG GT GT3 AP 2:04.562 00.973
10 107 Bentley Team M-Sport S.Kane/J.Gounon/J.Pepper Bentley Continental PP 2:04.691 01.103
11 12 Ice Break – Virgin Australia D.Calvert-Jones/K.Estre/J.Evans Porsche GT3-R AP 2:04.743 01.155
12 75 Sunenergy1 Racing K.Habul/D.Baumann/T.Jaeger Mercedes AMG GT GT3 AP 2:04.861 01.273
13 912 EBM D.Werner/M.Campbell Porsche 911 GT3-R PP 2:04.954 01.366
14 911 EBM R.Dumas/S.Muller/M.Jaminet Porsche 911 GT3-R PP 2:05.094 01.506
15 35 KC Motorgroup LTD K.Chiyo/T.Matsuda/J.Burdon Nissan GTR Nismo GT3 PP 2:05.111 01.523
16 34 Walkenhorst Motorsport C.Krognes/N.Catsburg/M.Jensen BMW M6 GT3 PP 2:05.115 01.527
17 888 Mercedes-AMG Team Vodafone C.Lowndes/J.Whincup Mercedes AMG GT GT3 PP 2:05.636 02.048
18 29 Haemokinisis/ Trofeo Estate/ P J.Manolios/B.Porter/D.Canto Lamborghini Huracan AP 2:05.772 02.184
19 11 Objective Racing T.Walls/W.Luff/A.Watson McLaren 650s AP 2:05.928 02.340
20 98 Aussie Driver Search Todd Hazelwood (AUS) Audi R8 LMS AP 2:06.100 02.512
21 19 Team Nineteen, Black Falcon M.Griffith/Y.Buurman/C.Nielsen Mercedes AMG GT GT3 AP 2:06.461 02.873
22 18 KC Motorgroup LTD Edoardo Liberati (ITA) Nissan GTR Nismo GT3 PP 2:07.343 03.755
23 20 Localsearch D.Jilesen/S.Owen MARC Car Marc II V8 I 2:07.440 03.852
24 6 Wall Racing A.Deitz/J.Westwood/T.D’Alberto Lamborghini Huracan AP 2:07.444 03.856
25 9 Melbourne Performance Centre M.Cini/D.Fiore Audi R8 LMS AP 2:07.621 04.033
26 91 MARC Cars Australia K.Kassulke/P.Morris/P.Tracy MARC Car Marc II V8 I 2:09.501 05.913
27 23 Team Carrera Cup Asia J.Bao/P.Hamprecht Porsche 911 GT3 Cup B 2:10.821 07.233
28 92 AJC Portables/ Nana’s Naturals G.Taunton/D.O’Keeffe MARC Car Marc I I 2:11.129 07.541
29 43 The Furniture Broker D.Stutterd/S.Fillmore/R.Muscat Porsche 911 GT3 Cup B 2:11.151 07.563
30 4 Grove Group S.Grove/B.Grove Porsche 911 GT3 Cup B 2:11.237 07.649
31 760 Aston Martin St. Gallen, B&O A.Baenziger/P.Leemhuis Aston Martin Vantage AP 2:14.157 10.569
32 96 GAP Solutions / SEKTOR H.Morral/E.Thorsen MARC Car Marc I I 2:15.095 11.506
33 71 Exedra Motorsport Dean Koutsoumidis (AUS) KTM X-Bow GT4 C 2:19.642 16.054
34 48 M Motorsport D.Lillie/E.Barbour KTM X-Bow GT4 C 2:19.930 16.342
35 55 Ginetta Australia B.Schumacher/J.Vernon Ginetta G55 GT4 C 2:20.355 16.766
36 13 JET Environmental D.Jorgensen/G.McLeod BMW M4 GT4 C 2:23.068 19.480
37 50 Vantage Freight David Crampton (AUS) KTM X-Bow GT4 C 2:28.504 24.915