Mies zipped around the track in just two minutes, 3.5 seconds during the third session, a lengthy one which lasted the best part of two hours.

It followed on from the Jamec Pem Audi R8 driver’s team-mate Christopher Haase topping the charts in the second session as well.

The #74 Audi team were in perfect nick throughout the day, having been third and only narrowly off the pace following the opening session.

While there was some variety across the time sheets by the conclusion of session three, the second of the team’s entries in the #75 car showed that they wouldn’t be a pushover either as they finished second in session two.

That team, comprising Steve McLaughlin, Garth Tander and Rene Rast, showed that they may not miss the injured Craig Lowndes as much as they thought by finishing only 0.029s behind the team’s faster car.

By the afternoon, things were starting to become clear as to where the pace would be coming from by the time the race starts tomorrow morning.

The #74 held the top position on the time sheets for the majority of the 90-minute session, Haase claiming the top spot for a full hour before Mies took over the honour with 15 minutes left in the session.

McLaren pushed its way up the standings with the second-fastest lap up until that point, the Tekno Autosports car clocking in just under half a second slower thanks to the efforts of Shane Van Gisbergen, Jonathon Webb and Alvaro Parente.

The Erebus Motorsport Mercedes of David Reynolds, Tom Jager and Nico Bastian was third.

After a relatively uneventful start to the day in sessions one and two, the lengthy third session of the day got off to a bumpy start when a red flag was called after only 12 minutes as Nicholas Rowe in a Mazda 3 went into the right-side tyre wall at Forrest’s Elbow.

Things got back into gear after the delay with the two main Audis continuing to show the speed they had hinted at in the opening minutes to immediately post the top two times after the resumption.

Despite making contact with the wall earlier in the day, Maro Engel put the second of the Erebus cars into contention even with some repairs to the rear suspension required, and at one point he climbed as high as fourth before that entry slipped back to ninth outright and seventh in its class.

“[The car was] pretty good, it was all there. I didn’t really have a clear lap, but I think we were in the top three at that point. The cars should be competitive,” Engel said afterwards.

“Obviously [it was] a shame we missed out on a good half an hour of running, but there’s plenty to go. We’ll resume our preparations and make sure we’re in good shape for the race.”

Another red flag came about halfway through the session as Christopher Joens spun the Hallmarc/Network Audi in the last corner, getting lodged in the sand before being taken out by the track crew to get things going again.

Lamborghini, Nissan and Bentley all managed to place in the top 10 by the conclusion of the session, though competitors were due to hit the track one more time late in the afternoon for half an hour.