Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS series leaders Chaz Mostert and Liam Talbot have dominated qualifying at Phillip Island for the GT Festival.
In the opening session, Mostert was fastest on a 1m 25.502s in the lead Arise Racing GT Ferrari 296 GT3 to be 0.308s clear of the Realta/Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Jayden Ojeda.
Jaxon Evans in the second Arise Racing GT Ferrari was third from Will Brown driving the Shaw & Partners/Kelso Electrical Team MPC Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II and New Zealander Brendon Leitch for Dayle ITM Team MPC.
Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Declan Fraser was next ahead of another Mercedes-AMG for Grove Racing GT’s Brenton Grove, Alex Peroni driving the Team BRM/ACM Finance Audi, the Volante Rosso Motorsport Aston Martin AMR Vantage GT3 of Alex Gardner and David Brabham at the helm of the Harrolds Racing entry was 10th.
A giant killing effort from Valentino Astuti placed the Trophy Class KMB Motorsport Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 in 11th ahead of Ben Schoots for Black Wolf Motorsport in its Mercedes-AMG GT3 leading Am Class.
Renee Gracie was 13th outright in the OnlyFans Team MPC Audi as Marcel Zalloua scored second in Am Class for Valmont Racing and Mike Sheargold followed driving the RAM Motorsport/GWR Australia Mercedes-AMG GT3.
James Koundouris for Supabarn Supermarkets/Tigani Motorsport was fourth in Am ahead of Ash Samadi, Paul Morris in the Trophy Class Scott Taylor Motorsport Porsche and Marc Cini’s Hallmarc Team MPC Audi.
It was Talbot vs Schumacher for pole position in this afternoon’s opening race, but it was the reigning series winner in the Arise Racing GT Ferrari setting a 1m 26.450s to end the session 0.306s ahead of his Audi rival.
Mark Rosser impressed in what is his best qualifying performance of the season in third after celebrating his maiden win alongside Peroni at Queensland Raceway.
Another to carry strong form to Phillip Island is Paul Stokell as he will start fourth from Peter Hackett, Am Class leader Garth Walden, Elliott Schutte in the second Ferrari and Sergio Pires in the Valmont Racing Audi.
Tim Miles was ninth from Ross Poulakis in the Volante Rosso Motorsport Aston Martin, Stephen Grove, Samadi, Darren Currie, Paul Lucchitti, Theo Koundouris and Shane Woodman.
Marc Cini, Chris Batzios and Scott Taylor completed the field.
The opening race for Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS will begin at 3:50pm AEST and broadcast through Foxtel/Kayo in addition to the GTWorld YouTube Channel.