The Dayle ITM Team MPC Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of Brendon Leitch and Tim Miles have taken Friday bragging rights by finishing on top of the timesheets in the opening session to begin the GT Festival at Phillip Island.
It promises to be a close weekend of competition at the GT Festival as Leitch set a 1m 25.571s to set the benchmark time of the session, 0.031s faster than Realta/Tigani Motorsport’s Jayden Ojeda in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 he will drive alongside Paul Lucchitti.
Recent race winners Alex Peroni and Mark Rosser were placed third just 0.390s off the ultimate pace in the ACM Finance/Team BRM Audi ahead of the first Arise Racing GT Ferrari 296 GT3 of series leaders Chaz Mostert and Liam Talbot.
Rounding out the top five was the Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Declan Fraser and Peter Hackett.
Sitting second in the title race, a minor incident during the final test session failed to halt the pace of Will Brown in the Shaw & Partners/Kelso Electrical Team MPC Audi. Brown partnered by Brad Schumacher set a 1m 26.271s to sit sixth.
The Jaxon Evans/Elliott Schutte Arise Racing GT Ferrari was seventh from Renee Gracie and Paul Stokell in the OnlyFans Team MPC Audi, while the Grove Racing Mercedes-AMG of Stephen and Brenton Grove was ninth.
First Am Class entry in the form of Garth Walden and Mike Sheargold’s RAM Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 completed the top 10.
Behind, Volante Rosso Motorsport’s Aston Martin AMR Vantage GT3 was 11th with Alex Gardner and Ross Poulakis behind the wheel.
Valmont Motorsport’s Marcel Zalloua and Sergio Pires sat second in Am Class from the similar Audi of Ash Samadi for Team MPC.
Chris Batzios and David Brabham’s Harrolds Racing Mercedes-AMG was 14th outright from the Black Wolf Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Ben Schoots and Shane Woodman.
Rounding out the runners was the Scott Taylor Motorsport Trophy-specification Porsche of Paul Morris and Scott Taylor.
As reported earlier, the Supabarn Supermarkets/Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG shared by James and Theo Koundouris left the circuit exiting Siberia, with repairs being undertaken ahead of tomorrow’s action.
Others missing from the session were the KMB Motorsport Aston Martin and Hallmarc Team MPC Audi.
Pre-qualifying begins the Saturday schedule for Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS at 9:10am AEST.
Broadcast action begins at 11:30am AEST for qualifying starting with Monochrome GT4 Australia.