Ferrari smashes Bathurst record

The racing version of the Ferrari 458 Italia road car took the lap record at the legendary Mt Panorama race track during a practice session.

Allan Simonsen at the wheel posted a 2:04.9560 time at the weekend around the 6.2km track. This is more than four seconds quicker than the existing lap record for a GT3 category car and the quickest for any form of non-open wheel racing car.

It was the first outing for the newly arrived Ferrari 458 GT3, which will be campaigned in Australia by Maranello Motorsport and their sponsor Il Bello Rosso. 

The Ferrari is now a front runner for the Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour event in February. Straight out of the box, the Ferrari has proven to be highly competitive. Simonsen was thrilled with the race package of the Maranello Motorsport entry.

"This car is damn fast! Given this is our first test, it's certainly nice to break the lap record finally and we did it in style," he said. 

"From the first laps at Bathurst the car was very quick, given it has a great setup baseline from running in Europe this year so we knew we'd be able to work from where they'd left off.

"The power and the chassis are so complementary and I'm feeling really comfortable in the car and with the team. These new generation cars are all going to have a fast pace, and there's no doubt the (Bathurst) 12 Hour is going to be very fast and incredibly competitive it's an event I'm definitely looking forward to on the calendar."