Darwin Supercars: Penske Mustangs end Friday on top

For the second session running it was David Reynolds that set the early pace, the Erebus driver straight under the Practice 1 benchmark with a 1m06.642s on his first flyer.

That time lasted until there was eight minutes to go, McLaughlin knocking Reynolds off top spot thanks to a 1m06.642s.

With drivers looking for a Top 10 spot to avoid Q1 tomorrow, that time was never going to be enough to survive the happy hour in the closing minutes.

However McLaughlin was up to the task, improving to a 1m06.080s on his final run to secure P1 right as he was starting to be shuffled down the order.

DJR Team Penske teammate Coulthard then made it a perfect session for the squad by popping up in second, 0.14s down on McLaughlin, on his very last lap.

“There’s so much more pressure now in practice. It’s tough, you’ve got to really be focused for the laps,” said McLaughlin.

“It’s always good to get one in, [Coulthard] is up there for the team too, which is great.”

DJR Team Penske teammate Coulthard ended up second, his best lap coming right at the flag.

That bumped Jamie Whincup back to third, the Red Bull Holden driver's rollercoaster session having including coming from outside the Top 10 on his final run, to briefly going fastest before the Penske Mustangs improved.

Practice 1 pacesetter Chaz Mostert ended up fourth, while Reynolds didn't find as big a gain as those around him and slipped back to fifth.

Lee Holdsworth, Anton De Pasquale and James Courtney were next, as Cam Waters was the final driver to secure his automatic passage to Q2, slotting into ninth ahead of Mark Winterbottom right on the flag.

Waters' improvement bumped Shane van Gisbergen out of the Top 10, the Red Bull Holden star now set to go the long way in qualifying tomorrow.

"That's tough, you lose an extra set of tyres there," he said.

"But that's been about our pace lately in qualifying-spec. We need to find something. We changed the car drastically for this weekend, it feels completely different but we're the same speed."

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Mustang GT	1'06.0799
2	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Mustang GT	1'06.2214	0.1415
3	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.2660	0.1861
4	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Mustang GT	1'06.3255	0.2456
5	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.3591	0.2792
6	5	Lee Holdsworth	Ford Mustang GT	1'06.4384	0.3585
7	99	Anton De Pasquale	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.4522	0.3723
8	22	James Courtney	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.5376	0.4577
9	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	1'06.5579	0.4780
10	18	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.5905	0.5106
11	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.5930	0.5131
12	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.6990	0.6191
13	23	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	1'06.7009	0.6210
14	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.7471	0.6672
15	21	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.7493	0.6694
16	7	Andre Heimgartner	Nissan Altima	1'06.8499	0.7700
17	19	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.8558	0.7759
18	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.8820	0.8021
19	35	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.8845	0.8046
20	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	1'06.9644	0.8845
21	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	1'06.9709	0.8910
22	3	Garry Jacobson	Nissan Altima	1'07.0887	1.0088
23	33	Chris Pither	Holden Commodore ZB	1'07.1267	1.0468
24	4	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	1'07.3462	1.2663
25	34	James Golding	Holden Commodore ZB	1'07.4070	1.3271