Finishing off the first day of on-track action at Mount Panorama ahead of the 2018 Bathurst 12 Hour, Frederic Vervisch laid down the gauntlet in the #22 Jamec Pem Audi Sport Customer Racing R8 LMS GT3.
The Belgian driver set a 2:03.136, the fastest ever Bathurst 12 Hour Friday lap, capping off a day which has seen blistering pace up and down the order.
Vervisch prevented another session with BMW at the top, the BMW Team Schnitzer M6 GT3 which topped FP2 and FP3 ending up second with a 2:03.388 from Marco Wittmann, just a tenth faster than the sister Jamec Pem #74 Audi, which had its 2:03.648 set by.
Completing the top five was the #37 WRT Audi, and the #100 BMW Team SRM M6, the best of the Pro Am Class A runners ending up sixth – the Lago Racing Lamborghini Gallardo managing an impressive 2:04.508 after the team performed an engine change between FP2 and FP4.
Elsewhere in the field, the #67 MARC II V8 topped the Invitational class, by just over a second after a 2:07.742 lap, the #66 Daytona Sportscars Viper slotting in second.
In Class B, the Carerra Cup Asia Porsche ended up top with a 2:06.759, and in Class C, Prosport Performance ended up 40th overall and fastest of the GT4 cars after a 2:16.640.
Unfortunately the session had to be brought to a premature end, after a multi-car incident at the Chase with 10 minutes to go, involving Max Twigg in the #8 Scott Taylor Mercedes and #15 Baigent Racing BMW M4 GT4 of Kent Baigent.
The two cars came together, both ending up stuck in the gravel, causing multiple other cars including the #911 Manthey Porsche to go off in avoidance.
