Lap record holder leads third practice

THIRD practice for the 2019 Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour has been topped by Audi's gun driver Christopher Mies, leading a group of three different marques across the top three spots.

The #2 Audi Sport Team Valvoline driver put in the fastest lap of the session, a 2:04.5139, in the second half of the allocated 60 minutes, continuing on from his cracking form of breaking the Mount Panorama lap record in November.

Fellow driver of the #2 machine, Christopher Haase, nearly bettered his team-mate's time late in the session, putting in the quickest middle sector of anyone but ended up just shy.

Australian driver Nick Foster, driving the #27 HubAuto Corsa Ferrari 488, led for a majority of the hour until times started to tumble, finishing down in fifth as Andy Soucek (#108), Jamie Whincup (#888) and Maximilian Buhk (#999) all bettered his time in the closing minutes.

Only on red flag was deployed throughout the session after the two which halted running in practice two, this time on the other end of the track at The Cutting.

T2 Racing by Liajen Motorsport's #20 entry, driven by Adam Hargraves, found the wall at The Cutting midway through the session. While Hargraves attempted to limp the MARC car back to the pits, he came to a halt at The Dipper, bringing out the red flags.

In a session where all the fast running was done by the Class A cars, the fastest Class B car of Grove Racing (#4) was 26th overall, only a second ahead of the Class I MARC Cars #91 entry.

The #41 KTM X-Bow of M Motorsport found itself as the top Class C entry, beating the time of the Ginetta earlier in the day.

An extended lunch break for the 12 Hour group will see them return to the track at 3:15pm local time, dialling in setups for tomorrow's qualifying and shootout sessions.