> Ferrari and Mercedes-AMG fastest ahead of qualifying
> Result: FP3
HubAuto Corsa’s Ferraris finished one-two in final practice at Buriram this morning ahead of today’s qualifying session and hour-long race, while Mercedes-AMG maintained its 100% GT4 record courtesy of GruppeM Racing.
Tim Slade’s best of 1m33.128s not only eclipsed yesterday’s practice benchmark but was also sufficient to beat team-mate Nick Foster by 0.225s. Both Australian drivers set their fastest times early in a 30-minute session that ended when Daniel Au crashed his Clearwater Racing McLaren with five minutes remaining.
KCMG’s #18 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 maintained its consistent start to the weekend in the hands of Tsugio Matsuda who again featured in the top-four. His fastest time was almost 0.5s down on the leading Ferrari but 0.1s clear of the FFF Racing Team by ACM Lamborghini shared by Dennis Lind and Martin Kodric.
GruppeM’s #999 Mercedes was hot on its title rivals’ heels in fifth place, while the second FFF Racing Team Huracan rounded out the top-six. The first of the Audis was next up, Mitch Gilbert and Aditya Patel’s OD Racing example heading Absolute Racing’s #37 R8 LMS GT3 and Maxi Buhk’s Mercedes-AMG. Phoenix Racing Asia completed a top-10 covered by 1.2s.
In GT4 it was once again Mercedes-AMG that ruled the roost after Reinhold Renger set fastest time of the week so far. However, the GruppeM driver’s final flying lap of 1m45.192s was just 0.015s faster than Team iRace.Win’s Ringo Chong and Gilles Vannelet, who topped the standings yesterday.
BMW Team Studie’s #81 M4 GT4 was once again fastest of the non-Mercedes-AMG contingent in third, albeit 0.4s adrift of Renger, while the Japanese outfit’s second entry driven by Ken Urata and Max Chen finished fourth.
Qualifying for this weekend’s first 60-minute race takes place at 10:50 today.