Jayden Ojeda and Paul Luchitti have laid down an early marker in Round 4 of the 2025 GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS, comfortably topping the timesheets in the opening practice session of the weekend.
Driving the Realta/Tigani Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO, the duo proved dominant across the 14-car field, with Ojeda's fastest lap of 1m08.214s more than half a second clear of their closest rivals.
Second fastest was the returning Jordan Love aboard the Arise Racing GT Ferrari 296 GT3, which he shares with Steven Wyatt, while just behind them in third were teammates Jaxon Evans and Elliott Schutte, who trailed by a further tenth, both Love and Evans clocking their best laps on their final flying runs.
In fourth for the session was the Kelso Electrical/Melbourne Performance Centre Audi R8 LMS Evo II of Broc Feeney and Brad Schumacher, with the duo missing out on third by the smallest of margins – just five thousandths of a second separating them to the Ferrari of Evans and Schutte.
Rounding out the top five were Lee Holdsworth and Marc Cini in their Hallmarc Melbourne Performance Centre Audi R8 LMS Evo II, making a strong start in their first GT World Challenge Australia appearance of the season.
In the Am class, series leader Renee Gracie continued her strong form, topping the category with a 1m09.943s, good enough for eighth outright and seven tenths ahead of the Tigani Motorsport duo of Theo and Jim Koundouris. The returning Ben Schoots and Shane Woodman placed third in class in the Black Wolf Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, a further three tenths back.
While Ojeda and Luchitti were the standout performers, it was a tougher session for their Tigani Motorsport teammates George King and Sergio Pires. An off-track excursion midway through the session by Pires left the Geyer Valmont Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo unable to return to the track.
GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS continues later today with Practice 2 at 1:05pm AEST.