Gold Coast 600: Van Gisbergen, Stanaway rub panels early
It didn't take long for paint to be traded on the Gold Coast, Shane van Gisbergen and Richie Stanaway rubbing panels in the opening Supercars practice session.
The curious clash started when van Gisbergen got stuck behind Stanaway at the Beach Chicane, before looking to pass the Garry Rogers Motorsport Holden into Turn 11.
However Stanaway didn't make things easy on his fellow Kiwi, giving van Gisbergen a decent whack in the door on the way past.
Having gone on to finish the session third, van Gisbergen was happy to laugh off the incident after the session.
“He’s one of my good mates, but he wonders why sometimes..." said van Gisbergen, referencing Stanaway's critics.
"I went down the inside and he just slammed me.
“Anyway, the car’s good, we didn’t run [new] tyres then, just stayed on the same ones and it feels pretty comfortable."
That wasn't the only drama at Turn 11 for the GRM squad. There was just one red flag in the 30-minute session, James Golding firing his Commodore into the outside wall.
Jamie Whincup set the pace in the opening hit-out, a 1m10.609s leaving him two-tenths clear of Chaz Mostert and van Gisbergen.
James Courtney and David Reynolds were fourth and fifth, followed by Cam Waters, Fabian Coulthard, Nick Percat and Anton De Pasquale.
| Cla | # | Driver | Car | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | km/h | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 888 |  Jamie Whincup Craig Lowndes | Holden Commodore ZB | 17 | 01'10.609 | 150.914 | |||
| 2 | 55 | Chaz Mostert James Moffat | Ford Mustang GT | 19 | 01'10.846 | 00.237 | 00.237 | 150.409 | |
| 3 | 97 |  Shane van Gisbergen Garth Tander | Holden Commodore ZB | 16 | 01'10.931 | 00.321 | 00.084 | 150.230 | |
| 4 | 22 | James Courtney Jack Perkins | Holden Commodore ZB | 15 | 01'11.012 | 00.402 | 00.081 | 150.058 | |
| 5 | 9 | David Reynolds Luke Youlden | Holden Commodore ZB | 16 | 01'11.087 | 00.477 | 00.075 | 149.899 | |
| 6 | 6 | Cameron Waters Michael Caruso | Ford Mustang GT | 15 | 01'11.107 | 00.497 | 00.019 | 149.857 | |
| 7 | 12 | Fabian Coulthard Tony D'Alberto | Ford Mustang GT | 17 | 01'11.172 | 00.563 | 00.065 | 149.720 | |
| 8 | 8 | Nick Percat Tim Blanchard | Holden Commodore ZB | 17 | 01'11.265 | 00.655 | 00.092 | 149.526 | |
| 9 | 99 | Anton De Pasquale Will Brown | Holden Commodore ZB | 14 | 01'11.304 | 00.695 | 00.039 | 149.443 | |
| 10 | 17 | Scott McLaughlin  Alexandre Prémat | Ford Mustang GT | 22 | 01'11.326 | 00.716 | 00.021 | 149.397 | |
| 11 | 2 | Scott Pye Warren Luff | Holden Commodore ZB | 16 | 01'11.332 | 00.723 | 00.006 | 149.384 | |
| 12 | 7 | Andre Heimgartner Bryce Fullwood | Nissan Altima | 17 | 01'11.407 | 00.797 | 00.074 | 149.228 | |
| 13 | 35 | Todd Hazelwood  Jack Smith | Holden Commodore ZB | 19 | 01'11.613 | 01.004 | 00.206 | 148.798 | |
| 14 | 14 | Tim Slade | Holden Commodore ZB | 15 | 01'11.630 | 01.020 | 00.016 | 148.763 | |
| 15 | 15 | Rick Kelly Dale Wood | Nissan Altima | 15 | 01'11.672 | 01.063 | 00.042 | 148.676 | |
| 16 | 23 | Will Davison Alex Davison | Ford Mustang GT | 17 | 01'11.757 | 01.147 | 00.084 | 148.500 | |
| 17 | 5 | Lee Holdsworth Thomas Randle | Ford Mustang GT | 19 | 01'11.796 | 01.186 | 00.039 | 148.419 | |
| 18 | 21 | Macauley Jones Dean Canto | Holden Commodore ZB | 16 | 01'11.822 | 01.212 | 00.025 | 148.366 | |
| 19 | 18 | Mark Winterbottom Steven Richards | Holden Commodore ZB | 12 | 01'11.882 | 01.272 | 00.060 | 148.242 | |
| 20 | 78 |  Simona de Silvestro Alex Rullo | Nissan Altima | 16 | 01'12.087 | 01.477 | 00.205 | 147.820 | |
| 21 | 19 | Jack Le Brocq Jonathon Webb | Holden Commodore ZB | 17 | 01'12.125 | 01.515 | 00.037 | 147.743 | |
| 22 | 33 | Richie Stanaway Chris Pither | Holden Commodore ZB | 17 | 01'12.298 | 01.688 | 00.172 | 147.389 | |
| 23 | 3 | Garry Jacobson Dean Fiore | Nissan Altima | 18 | 01'12.362 | 01.753 | 00.064 | 147.258 | |
| 24 | 34 | James Golding Richard Muscat | Holden Commodore ZB | 10 | 01'12.385 | 01.775 | 00.022 | 147.212 | |
| 25 | 56 | Brodie Kostecki Jake Kostecki | Holden Commodore ZB | 19 | 01'13.453 | 02.844 | 01.068 | 145.070 |
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