The #32 Team WRT BMW M4.
Charles Weerts put the #32 BMW M4 on top of Friday morning’s first session with a 2:03.8685s on his 11th lap of 13.
Weerts was the only driver to go below the 2m04s bracket, with the #222 Scott Taylor Motorsport trio of Chaz Mostert, Cameron Waters, and Thomas Randle second.
“It always feels good,” said Weerts’ teammate Kelvin van der Linde.
“I wouldn’t say it feels like winning the race just yet, but it’s always a nice confirmation for the boys who have built up the car over the weekend to make sure that everything is running nicely and obviously the confirmation of being in the mix is a great confirmation for us.
“Still a long way to go, as you know, this weekend. We’ll see how it goes.”
This year’s Bathurst 12 Hour is the first for Team WRT with the EVO specification.
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A variety of cars are debuting at Mount Panorama, including the Corvette Z06 and the Ford Mustang GT3.
“Any race car feels great here at Bathurst, but particularly the BMW M4,” van der Linde continued.
“It’s a privilege to drive, as I say every year. I enjoyed every lap. Now we’re going to go into the thick of things and try focus on the race.
“I guess everyone is kind of on the same schedule, it’s very limited on tyres, which is a critical element here this weekend. I think everyone will be on their race planning for Sunday.”
Practice 1 was relatively incident-free, save for Maxime Martin suffering a right rear puncture on the #888 Team GMR Mercedes-AMG.
That car completed just nine laps, and ended the morning in 26th with a 2:07.0584s to be more than three seconds off the pace.
Volante Rosso Motorsport quartet Rylan Gray, Bayley Hall, Marcos Flack, and Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer spent the session in the pit lane and did not set a lap. Speedcafe understands the #14 McLaren 720S had a suspected gearbox issue.
BMW squad Team KRC spent most of the session in the pits too, only making it onto the track late in the piece.
Max Hesse completed just five laps in the #89 BMW M4 on his way to a 2:06.0831s to end the session 2.2 seconds off the pace.
Results: Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour Practice 1
Pos
Num
Driver
Car
Laps
Lap
Diff
Gap
1
32
Charles Weerts
BMW M4 GT3 EVO
13
2:03.8685
2
222
Chaz Mostert
Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO
16
2:04.1558
0.2873
0.2873
3
268
Steve Brooks
Audi RB LMS GT3 Evo
16
2:04.1610
0.2925
0.0052
4
911
Matt Campbell
Porsche 911 GT3R
17
2:04.2824
0.4139
0.1214
5
100
Brenton Grove
Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO
17
2:04.3854
0.5169
0.1030
6
9
Dean Fiore
Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo
16
2:04.3857
0.5172
0.0003
7
55
Will Brown
Audi RB LMS GT3 Evo
16
2:04.3950
0.5265
0.0093
8
75
Luca Stolz
Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO
15
2:04.4617
0.5932
0.0667
9
61
Ricardo Feller
Porsche 911 GT3R
14
2:04.6983
0.8298
0.2366
10
93
Marco Mapelli
Lamborghini Huracan
16
2:04.7392
0.8707
0.0409
11
46
Valentino Rossi
BMW M4 GT3 EVO
16
2:04.9395
1.0710
0.2003
12
101
Klark Quinn
Audi RB LMS GT3 Evo
16
2:05.2405
1.3720
0.3010
13
79
Fabio Babini
Porsche 911 GT3R
15
2:05.2533
1.3848
0.0128
14
193
Christopher Froggatt
Ferrari 296 GT3
14
2:05.3324
1.4639
0.0791
15
47
David Russell
Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO
14
2:05.4545
1.5860
0.1221
16
26
Davide Rigon
Ferrari 296 GT3
16
2:05.7167
1.8482
0.2622
17
44
Brendon Leitch
Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO
12
2:05.8372
1.9687
0.1205
18
64
Christopher Mies
Ford Mustang GT3
13
2:05.8790
2.0105
0.0418
19
89
Max Hesse
BMW M4 GT3 EVO
5
2:06.0831
2.2146
0.2041
20
27
Eduardo Barrichello
Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO
15
2:06.1468
2.2783
0.0637
21
86
Anders Fjordbach
Porsche 911 GT3R
15
2:06.2168
2.3483
0.0700
22
45
Brett Hobson
Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO
16
2:06.3364
2.4679
0.1196
23
2
Alexandar Sims
Chevrolet Z06 GT3.R
12
2:06.3556
2.4871
0.0192
24
21
Alfred Renauer
Porsche 911 GT3R
16
2:06.7411
2.8726
0.3855
25
77
Ralf Aron
Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO
12
2:07.0066
3.1381
0.2655
26
888
Maxime Martin
Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO
9
2:07.0584
3.1899
0.0518
27
95
Garnet Patterson
McLaren 720S GT3 EVO
15
2:07.1819
3.3134
0.1235
28
6
Jayden Ojeda
Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO
14
2:07.5010
3.6325
0.3191
29
99
Ben Green
Chevrolet Z06 GT3.R
12
2:07.5960
3.7275
0.0950
30
50
Trent Harrison
KTM X-BOW GT2
16
2:08.3533
4.4848
0.7573
31
111
Darren Currie
IRC GT
15
2:09.7966
5.9281
1.4433
32
14
Bryce Fullwood
Aston Martin Vantage
15
2:10.6002
6.7317
0.8036
33
7
Graeme Dowsett
Aston Martin Vantage
14
2:15.4264
11.5579
4.8262
34
42
Adrian Kunzle
McLaren Artura GT4
14
2:21.3788
17.5103
5.9524
35
15
McLaren 720S GT3 EVO
0
