Tigani Motorsport has once again enjoyed a timesheet-topping session at GT Festival Hampton Downs, with George King and Marcel Zalloua setting the pace in GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS Practice 2.
Both drivers impressed in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, with King producing a brilliant late-session lap of 1:31.045 to secure the fastest time overall. His effort saw the Tigani Mercedes knock the Arise Racing GT Ferrari 296 GT3 of Pro-Am leaders Elliott Schutte and Jaxon Evans from the top spot, after the pair had held control of the timesheets for much of the session.
Incredibly, the next two fastest cars were separated by less than four hundredths of a second, with Tigani Motorsport’s Jayden Ojeda and Paul Lucchitti just 0.018 seconds off the Ferrari’s best, while Melbourne Performance Centre’s Ryan Wood and Steve Brooks were another 0.018 seconds back in their Audi R8 LMS EVO II.
In the end, less than one tenth of a second covered the top three cars at the conclusion of the one-hour session, highlighting just how close the competition is at the pointy end of the field.
Rounding out the top five was Broc Feeney and Brad Schumacher in their Melbourne Performance Centre-supported Audi R8 LMS EVO II, the pair finishing just under two-tenths adrift of King and Zalloua’s benchmark time.
The Am Class saw a reshuffle at the top, with Benjamin Schoots and Shane Woodman leading the way in their Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO. Their best lap was two and a half tenths quicker than fellow AMG pilots Darren Currie and Grant Donaldson, who finished second in class.
Just one more session remains for a busy Friday with Pre-Qualifying taking place at 3:30pm AEDT / 5:30pm NZDT.