Haase Puts MPC Audi Back on Top in Bathurst Practice 5

Christopher Haase put the Jamec Racing/Team MPC Audi back on top in Saturday morning’s fifth practice session for the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour.

German veteran Haase turned a best lap of 2:03.040 aboard the No. 55 Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II with nine minutes left on the clock in the one-hour session, knocking fellow Audi driver Alex Peroni off the top spot.

That time remained unbeaten in the closing stages, making it the second time in three sessions that the No. 55 car has topped the times, following Will Brown’s Friday pace-setting effort in Practice 3.

Cam Waters made a late bid for the top spot in the No. 222 Scott Taylor Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, but came up 0.215 seconds short to end up second, while Jules Gounon slotted the 75 Express Mercedes-AMG into third, 0.265 seconds behind.

Collectively, they demoted the Team BRM Audi of Peroni, which had previously topped the timesheets in the hands of James Golding, to fourth, while Brenton Grove made it three Mercedes-AMGs in the top five in the No. 100 Grove Racing example.

Alex Fontana was a surprise sixth in the No. 79 Tsunami RT Porsche 911 GT3 R, ahead of the best of the Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVOs, Kelvin van der Linde’s No. 32 car, and the No. 64 HRT Ford Mustang GT3 of Broc Feeney.

Completing the top ten were the No. 93 Wall Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Tony D’Alberto and Raffaele Marciello in the No. 46 BMW.

Maxime Martin suffered an off at the first corner in the No. 888 GruppeM Mercedes-AMG, which was one of the only flashpoints in an otherwise smooth session.

After a troubled Friday, Volante Rosso Motorsport’s McLaren 720S GT3 Evo finally turned significant mileage on Saturday morning, completing 25 laps en route to 24th.

Conversely, Arise Racing GT’s No. 26 Ferrari 296 GT3 spent the bulk of the session in the garage amid a rare problem with the engine thermostat, ending up 31st, while the 111 Racing IRC GT didn’t appear at all.

The Bathurst 12H field was reduced to 34 cars ahead of Saturday’s running as the Team NZ Aston Martin Vantage GT4 that was heavily damaged in an incident during the final practice session on Friday was withdrawn.

It leaves a single GT4 car, the Method Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4, in the field.

Practice for the Bathurst 12H continues with the sixth and final session at 10:05 a.m. local time (Friday 6:05 p.m. ET).

RESULTS: Practice 5