Bathurst 1000: McLaughlin smashes Bathurst lap record

The DJR Team Penske driver was in a class of his own, easily eclipsing Jamie Whincup’s unofficial lap record – a 2m04.909 set in 2015.

It was Chaz Mostert that went under Whincup’s benchmark first, storming to the top of the time sheets with a record-busting 2m04.743s just over 20 minutes into the session.

Four minutes later McLaughlin landed the hammer blow, decimating Mostert’s freshly-set record with a 2m04.357s.

He didn’t stop there, either. Ten minutes later McLaughlin went faster again, lowering his own record to a 2m04.220s.

And with 11 minutes to go he had another crack, improving to a stunning 2m04.147s. It could have been better too, a scrappy last sector costing McLaughlin time after he’d been more than two-tenths up at the second sector.

There was no beating that time, the DJR Team Penske driver ending the final pre-qualifying practice session comfortably on top.

“That was awesome. I’m pretty blown way to be honest,” said McLaughlin.

“It was seriously nice to have the tyres to be able to do it. That last lap, I feel we could have gone a little bit better. The first two sets of tyres I was a bit twitchy, put that last set on and it was a bit better. I just made a mistake at the second-last corner.

“But I’ll take a 4.1s any day. Tell you what, though, you’re hanging on!”

Mostert had to find time again to finish second, having been bumped down to third by Nick Percat’s 2m04.708s with a quarter of an hour to go.

The Prodrive Racing driver improved to a 2m04.675s on his final run to slot back into second, and relegate Percat to third.

In total six drivers ended up under Whincup’s former record, with Fabian Coulthard, Cam Waters, and Mark Winterbottom all in the 2m04.7s.

Craig Lowndes was seventh fastest with a 2m04.913s, while Scott Pye and James Moffat rounded out the Top 10.

Neither of the Red Bull Holden made it into the first 10, with Jamie Whincup just 14th fastest and Shane van Gisbergen in 15th.

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	17	Alexandre Prémat    Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG-X	2'04.1470
2	55	Steven Owen    Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG-X	2'04.6752	0.5282
3	8	Nick Percat    Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore VF	2'04.7087	0.5617
4	12	Tony D'Alberto    Fabian Coulthard	Ford Falcon FG-X	2'04.7319	0.5849
5	6	Richie Stanaway    Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG-X	2'04.7387	0.5917
6	5	Mark Winterbottom    Dean Canto	Ford Falcon FG-X	2'04.7979	0.6509
7	888	Steven Richards    Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore VF	2'04.9137	0.7667
8	2	Warren Luff    Scott Pye	Holden Commodore VF	2'04.9263	0.7793
9	34	James Moffat    Richard Muscat	Holden Commodore VF	2'04.9442	0.7972
10	23	Michael Caruso    Dean Fiore	Nissan Altima	2'04.9649	0.8179
11	22	James Courtney    Jack Perkins	Holden Commodore VF	2'05.0415	0.8945
12	20	Todd Kelly    Jack Le Brocq	Nissan Altima	2'05.0602	0.9132
13	19	Jonathon Webb    Will Davison	Holden Commodore VF	2'05.1500	1.0030
14	88	Jamie Whincup    Paul Dumbrell	Holden Commodore VF	2'05.1516	1.0046
15	97	Shane van Gisbergen    Matt Campbell	Holden Commodore VF	2'05.2264	1.0794
16	56	Jason Bright    Garry Jacobson	Ford Falcon FG-X	2'05.2523	1.1053
17	14	Tim Slade    Ash Walsh	Holden Commodore VF	2'05.4163	1.2693
18	15	Rick Kelly    David Wall	Nissan Altima	2'05.5408	1.3938
19	9	David Reynolds  Luke Youlden	Holden Commodore VF	2'05.5751	1.4281
20	18	Lee Holdsworth    Karl Reindler	Holden Commodore VF	2'05.6638	1.5168
21	33	Garth Tander    James Golding	Holden Commodore VF	2'05.8961	1.7491
22	21	Tim Blanchard    Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore VF	2'06.1468	1.9998
23	78	Simona de Silvestro    David Russell	Nissan Altima	2'06.3251	2.1781
24	62	Alex Davison    Alex Rullo	Holden Commodore VF	2'06.6950	2.5480
25	99	Dale Wood    Chris Pither	Holden Commodore VF	2'06.8886	2.7416
26	3	Aaren Russell    Taz Douglas	Holden Commodore VF	2'07.4358	3.2888