Van der Linde Tops Opening Practice at Bathurst

Photo: Bathurst 12H

Kelvin van der Linde led the way in opening practice for Sunday’s Repco Bathurst 12 Hour, putting his Melbourne Performance Centre Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II on the top of the time charts.

The South African in the No. 22 Audi reeled off a best lap of 2:02.734 to edge out a late-improving Charles Weerts in the No. 32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 by 0.509 seconds.

Raffaele Marciello, in his BMW debut, was third quickest in the sister No. 46 WRT entry, followed by Luca Stolz’s No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, which is seeking the team’s third consecutive race win, in fourth.

The No. 2 MPC Audi of Markus Winkelhock completed the top-five ahead of the No. 912 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R in sixth and the seventh-placed No. 888 Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG.

Heart of Racing by SPS was quickest in the Pro-Am ranks, followed by the No. 130 GruppeM Racing and No. 88 Triple Eight Mercedes-AMGs, which completed the top-ten overall.

There were no major incidents or red flags during the 40-minute session, which saw all 30 cars entered turn laps of Mount Panorama.

A Bronze-driver only session is next up at 9:50 a.m. local time (Thursday, 5:50 p.m. ET).

RESULTS: Free Practice 1

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John