Clipsal 500 Supercars: Whincup tops morning warm-up

The majority of the crews spent the 20-minute session working on race set-up, with times not dipping below 1m20s until Whincup switched to Shootout simulation mode with five minutes to go and put down a 1m19.764s.

Provisional polesitter van Gisbergen, who had been sitting second with a 1m20.352s, followed suit, dipping into the 19s himself with a 1m19.917.

Prodrive Racing’s Cam Waters did likewise, switching from a race set-up focus to a Shootout sim at the end to go third with a 1m19.940s.

“The start of [the session] was more of a race car to see what we’re going to be like on heavy tanks, and then we put greens on at the end,” said Waters. “Third is pretty good, if we can be around there in the Top 10 Shootout I’ll be rapt.”

Waters’s PRA teammates Mark Winterbottom and Chaz Mostert both popped up at the end to go fourth and fifth, in the low 1m20s, while James Moffat was an impressive sixth in the GRM Commodore.

David Reynolds, who was fastest with five minutes to go, ended up in seventh, ahead of Todd Kelly, Scott Pye, and Tim Slade.

While the Red Bull-backed Triple Eight cars were first and second, Craig Lowndes missed out on the Top 10 again in the Vortex T8 Commodore, finishing way down in 22nd.

He wasn’t concerned, though, explaining that his focus was purely on race set-up, as he won’t be part of the Top 10 Shootout.

“We’re looking for a race car,” he said. “The car is really good. We learnt a lot that session, and we’ll make the car better for the race. We’re fully focussed on full tanks, we don’t need to worry about a one-lapper.”

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Laps	Time	Gap
1	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore VF	8	1'19.7649
2	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore VF	10	1'19.9176	0.1527
3	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG-X	9	1'19.9400	0.1751
4	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG-X	9	1'20.0399	0.2750
5	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG-X	12	1'20.1273	0.3624
6	34	James Moffat	Holden Commodore VF	11	1'20.2964	0.5315
7	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore VF	7	1'20.3432	0.5783
8	7	Todd Kelly	Nissan Altima	9	1'20.4438	0.6789
9	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore VF	9	1'20.5007	0.7358
10	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore VF	10	1'20.5081	0.7432
11	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG-X	10	1'20.5378	0.7729
12	23	Michael Caruso	Nissan Altima	9	1'20.5923	0.8274
13	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore VF	10	1'20.6836	0.9187
14	19	Will Davison	Holden Commodore VF	14	1'20.6950	0.9301
15	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	11	1'20.7723	1.0074
16	22	James Courtney	Holden Commodore VF	8	1'20.8130	1.0481
17	56	Jason Bright	Ford Falcon FG-X	9	1'20.8651	1.1002
18	18	Lee Holdsworth	Holden Commodore VF	8	1'20.9176	1.1527
19	33	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore VF	11	1'20.9191	1.1542
20	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Falcon FG-X	12	1'20.9684	1.2035
21	99	Dale Wood	Holden Commodore VF	6	1'21.0127	1.2478
22	888	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore VF	11	1'21.0424	1.2775
23	3	Taz Douglas	Holden Commodore VF	10	1'21.1890	1.4241
24	21	Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore VF	10	1'21.3102	1.5453
25	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	12	1'22.3831	2.6182
26	62	Alex Rullo	Holden Commodore VF	7	1'22.8960	3.1311