Van Gisbergen Puts Triple Eight on Top in Friday Practice

Mercedes-AMG Team Triple Eight Race Engineering topped Free Practice 4 with the fastest time of Friday at the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour, courtesy of a late flyer from Shane van Gisbergen.

Van Gisbergen was the first driver to dip into the 2:03 barrier as the Kiwi laid down a 2:03.964 in the closing stages aboard the No. 888 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to beat teammate Anton De Pasquale in the No. 777 The Bend Motorsport Park Mercedes.

Kelvin van der Linde put the No. 222 Audi Sport Team Valvoline entry in third, followed by the sister No. 22 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo of Christopher Mies.

Raffaele Marciello’s early 2:04.940 lap time in the No. 999 Team GruppeM Racing entry stood for fifth.

A red flag came out within the first 10 minutes of the 60-minute session after Sergey Afanasiev had an incident at the top of the Mountain in the No. 46 Black Falcon Mercedes.

Afanasiev returned to the pits under his own steam and was pushed into the garage with damage to the front of the car.

The session quickly went back to green with no further interruptions for the duration.

Free Practice 5 gets underway on Saturday at 8:45 a.m. local time.

RESULTS: Free Practice 4