Engel Quickest in Third Bathurst Practice

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO

Maro Engel took his GruppeM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to the top of the time charts in the third practice session of the day for Sunday’s Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour.

Engel reeled off a 2:03.851 lap time with 12 minutes remaining in the 40-minute session.

It was 0.026 seconds quicker than Broc Feeny in the No. 183 Jamec Racing/Team MPC Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II in second.

Bathurst rookie Laurin Heinrich put the Pro-Am class pace-setting No. 91 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R third on the time charts, with Valentino Rossi and Kelvin van der Linde completing the top five in the pair of Team WRT BMW M4 GT3s.

Jules Gounon made a late session improvement to sixth in the No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG, while the No. 26 Arise Racing GT Ferrari 296 GT3 was seventh.

There were no incidents on track, other than a kangaroo that briefly jumped onto the circuit that resulted in a double-yellow flag.

Friday’s final practice session, reserved for Bronze-rated drivers, gets underway at 4:30 p.m. local time (12:30 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Practice 3