In a day full of red flags and a slippery track, Kiwi racers Marco Giltrap and Clay Osborne secured top ten finishes in both practice and qualifying at Bathurst.
Practice:
The weekend’s only practice session for Carrera Cup started in the rain and stayed wet throughout the session.
As Osborne completed his out lap, the Kiwi ran off the track and through the grass, highlighting the challenge of staying on course in the difficult weather conditions
Glen Wood set a benchmark lap time of 2:29.968, also highlighting the impact of the track conditions on the lap times as he was the only one to achieve a time under 2 minutes and 30 seconds in the first two laps.
Both Kiwis started off the session well, getting into the top 10 as Giltrap earned 7th and Osborne wasn’t far behind in 9th after their first two laps around the mountain.
The start wasn’t without incident, though, as two drivers spun off the track and Vidal crashed into the tyre barriers. On his second lap, Giltrap found the cars limit in challenging conditions and ran off the track into the runoff area.
Osborne continued to improve after he earned three green sectors on his next lap, moving up two positions to 7th. While continuing to push the limits in an attempt to go even faster, he also came off the track into a runoff area.
International driver Marcus Amand topped the leaderboard with a 2:28.100 before earning another pink at the start of his next lap.
Giltrap improved to regain positions and jump up to 6th, while Osborne ran through the grass again.
The session was then red flagged when Harri Jones slid into Belford, getting stuck in the gravel and was unable to rejoin. Practice resumed with only 4 minutes left, giving the drivers one last chance to improve their final lap times.
Both Kiwis finished in the top 10, with Giltrap earning a solid 8th and Osborne earning 10th.
Amand topped the session after improving his time to 2:37.728, an impressive lap for his first time on the mountain in such tricky conditions.
Qualifying:
Qualifying began in the rain, but conditions eased later in the session, offering drivers some relief from the slippery track.
Amand quickly rose to the top of the leaderboard on his first lap, with a 2:26.955 lap time. He improved again on his next attempt, cutting down his lap time by nearly 1 second.
Both Kiwis sat inside the top ten, showing their early pace, with Giltrap up in 6th and Osborne sitting in 10th.
At the top of the hill, Rodney Jane hit the wall and got stuck in the middle of the track, causing another red flag while he worked to get going again.
When the drivers made it out back out on track, Giltrap started his lap on a green sector before improving up to fourth, sitting 2.755 seconds behind Amand in the lead.
Osborne also improved, jumping up to fourth and sitting just over a second behind Giltrap’s best lap time.
His lap time was impeded by a localized yellow flag after Shahim hit the wall while spinning out and got stuck backwards. He was unable to recover while other drivers were running, so a second red flag was subsequently called.
When the session resumed with 7 minutes left, drivers were under pressure to get two good lap times in before the session ended.
As the drivers were in the middle of their first flying lap back out, a third red flag was called when another driver got stuck backwards at the same spot as Shahin, ending the session early.
The red flags and tricky conditions benefited the Kiwi drivers, as they both finished well inside the top ten. Osborne earned 8th, which will start him in the 4th row for Race 1.
Giltrap earned a qualifying record in the category, finishing just outside of the top three in 4th, and will start from the second row for the race.
The first of the Carrera Cup Australia races is this afternoon at 4:20pm NZST and you can catch the action on Sky Sport.
Header Image: Porsche Motorsport Australia
