Rain has lingered during the second practice session of Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS at Phillip Island leading to most teams running a limited program, but Arise Racing GT’s Chaz Mostert topped the timesheets in the new Ferrari 296 GT3.
Mostert set a time of 1m 26.256s to lead the Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Jayden Ojeda, with the second Arise Racing GT Ferrari of Jaxon Evans third.
In an incredibly close session the top fastest six times were separated by just 0.322s as all three manufacturers represented this weekend featured at the pointy end.
The gap between Mostert and Ojeda was just 0.017s promising close action to start the season at the Island.
New to the field this season, Mostert will team with reigning series winner Liam Talbot and Ojeda on the other hand moves to Tigani Motorsport to join Paul Lucchitti.
The Grove Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 was driven to fourth by Brenton Grove ahead of the Team BRM/ACM Finance Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo 2 shared by Mark Rosser and Alex Peroni, while the all-New Zealand attack featuring Tim Miles partnered by Brendon Leitch was sixth in the Dayle ITM-supported entry.
The Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Peter Hackett and Declan Fraser placed ahead of Renee Gracie in the OnlyFans Team MPC Audi she will share with Paul Stokell, while the pacesetting Shaw & Partners/Kelso Electrical entry of Brad Schumacher and Will Brown was ninth.
Leading the Am Class was RAM Motorsport’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 shared by Michael Sheargold and Garth Walden just ahead of the Valmont Racing Audi for Marcel Zalloua sharing with Sergio Pires.
Ben Schoots was third in class for Black Wolf Motorsport in its category debut as the sole GT Trophy entry for KMB Motorsport pair Valentino Astuti and Michael Bailey split the Am Class in half by placing 13th outright.
Tony Bates enjoyed some running in his return after missing opening practice in the Ashley Seward Motorsport-prepared Mercedes-AMG to be fourth in class from James Koundouris in the Tigani Motorsport example.
The Audis of Ash Samadi and Marc Cini completed the field.
Qualifying for the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS at Phillip Island begins tomorrow’s action at 10:35am.