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Intercontinental GT Challenge

Farfus Tops Opening Practice at Bathurst

BMW Team WRT paces opening practice for Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour…

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO

Augusto Farfus led the way in opening practice for Sunday’s Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour for BMW Team WRT.

The Brazilian was credited with a best lap of 2:02.900 in the No. 32 BMW M4 GT3 early in the 40-minute session around Mount Panorama, which was 0.314 seconds quicker than Luca Stolz’s No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, which ended up second with a late improvement.

The No. 888 GruppeM Mercedes-AMG was third quickest, with Maro Engel having been credited with the lap time.

Valentino Rossi made a last-lap improvement to put his No. 46 WRT BMW in fourth, with the No. 77 Craft-Bamboo Racing entry making it three Mercedes-AMGs in the top-five.

The No. 9 Hallmarc Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II was sixth quickest, leading the way in the Bronze class, while Scott Andrews led the way in Pro-Am in the No. 44 Valmont Audi.

Manthey EMA’s Pro-Am class Porsche 911 GT3 R was eighth.

The No. 26 Arise Racing GT Ferrari 296 GT3 was ninth, with the No. 911 Absolute Racing Porsche of Ayhancan Guven completing the top-ten in a late-session improvement.

The session ran without any notable incidents or red flags.

Practice 2, reserved for Bronze-rated drivers only, is set for 10:10 a.m. local time (Thursday, 6:10 p.m. ET).

RESULTS: Practice 1

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

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