Heavy Audi crash punctuates Practice

An Audi topped Practice 3 at Mount Panorama, but another’s day ended in the wall.

Liam Talbot (#65 Audi) led the running in the Bronze-only session.

Talbot led Yasser Shahin (#777 Audi), Brad Schumacher (#74 Audi) and Martin Konrad (#75 Mercedes-AMG).

Kevin Tse (#91 Mercedes-AMG) was fifth ahead of Zane Morse (#52 MARC) and Tony Bates (#24 Audi).

A last-gasp Schumacher went purple through the first two sectors, but couldn’t improve.

The session wasn’t without incident, with Theo Koundouris (#47 Audi) crashing midway after 12 minutes.

Koundouris lost the rear of his car at Reid Park and heavily backed into the wall.

The car took out an event streaming camera, which caught the crash live.

Koundouris brought his damaged car to a halt on the approach to McPhillamy, triggering the red flag.

At the time of the stoppage, Schumacher led the way on a 2:08.290s ahead of Shahin and Talbot.

The session resumed after a 15-minute stoppage, and Talbot quickly shot to the top.

Talbot clocked a 2:06.879s, before lowering his own benchmark to a 2:06.216s.

Shahin and Schumacher also improved, and were the only two drivers within a second of the #65 Audi.

Talbot’s time held firm; Shahin, Schumacher, Konrad and Tse were within a second.

The #888 Mercedes-AMG of Prince Jefri Ibrahim did not set a lap.

The yellow Mercedes suffered a suspected right rear puncture.

The #777 and #74 Audis clocked the most laps of the session with 16 apiece.

Cars will return to the track for Practice 4 at 5:05pm local time.