Audi/BMW lead rapid opening practice sessions at Bathurst

AUDI and BMW have topped the opening two practice sessions ahead of this weekend's Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour.

Practice 1 was taken out by the #37 Audi Sport Team WRT Audi, jumping to the top of the timing sheets right at the end of the session ahead of the #47 YNA Autosport McLaren in a fairly uneventful 30-minute session which was restricted to the only the Silver and Bronze rated drivers.

The second session, at 45-minutes in length for all drivers, was topped by the #43 BMW Team Schnitzer M6 GT3 of Augusto Farfus, with an impressive lap time of 2:03.695s.

In Class B, Team Carrera Cup Asia ended up fastest in Practice 2 with their #23 car, while BMW Team SRM were quickest of the GT4 cars in Class C.

MARC Cars Australia topped Class I with their #91 Gen II MARC Mustang, from the #66 Daytona Sportscars Australia Dodge Viper who ended up second in class.

"I think in the first session, everybody just tries to find themselves, the track is still pretty green," said Farfus after the session.

"For me it was the first time out and it was quite impressive. The track, it is a cool location, nice, I'm really enjoying it and the car so far is going well. We put the car on P1, so it's a good start to the weekend."

The first of the sessions had a delay in getting underway after the Black Swan Racing Porsche had a wheel depart from the car heading up Mountain Straight on it's out-lap.

Safety crews managed to recover the car back to the paddock, however on the back of a flat-bed truck as the session resumed.

When Practice 2 got underway, Steven Richards went straight to the top aboard the #100 BMW Team SRM M6 GT3, before he was bettered by the #991 Craft Bamboo Porsche.

Lap times started to tumble as the session elapsed with the Jamec Pem Audis holding the top two spots for over 5-minutes until multiple cars, including the #777 Buik Motorsports Lamborghini and #11 Objective Racing McLaren began to trade fastest laps.

The #37 WRT dropped into the low 2min 4s as the clock ticked over the half hour mark in the session, while at the same time, the Bentley Team M-Sport Continental GT3s ventured out onto the circuit after only being delivered to the track at 3:30am this morning.

The #22 Jamec Pem Audi was the first to dip into the 2mins 3s, as the #43 BMW Team Schnitzer car jumped up the order in the closing stages to the top spot.

Finishing up Practice 2 in second was the #22 Audi, while the #100 BMW Team SRM M6 ended up third fastest.

Fourth quickest was the #82 International Motorsport Audi and rounding out the top ten was the #47 YNA Autosport McLaren.

Practice 3 will begin at 10:45am local time.

Full session results.

Track schedule.

BY: Slade Perrins.