Mostert disqualified from Darwin practice

The Walkinshaw Andretti United driver ran afoul of the controversial new minimum tyre pressure rule being debuted at Hidden Valley this weekend.

He was found to have had less than the required 20 psi in his left rear tyre at the start of the session.

"During the session the stewards received a report from the [Head of Motorsport] that the pressure of the rear left control tyre on Car 25 as it entered the circuit at the commencement of the session was below the mandatory minimum tyre pressure for this event of 20psi to be achieved at any time a car is on the circuit during any session," read the stewards report.

"The matter was investigated following the session and, after an admission to the breach by WAU Racing, the stewards disqualified car 25 from Practice 2."

The minimum tyre pressure has been raised from 17 to 20 psi for this weekend's Darwin Triple Crown in a bid to promote higher degradation.

The softest of the three Dunlop compounds made a somewhat underwhelming debut at the Hidden Valley circuit last year, which was attributed to teams being able to bleed tyres back to a lower true pressures thanks to the hot conditions.

There was initially a move to ban teams from 'baking' tyres in the sun before sessions as well, however that has since been scrapped.

The higher minimum pressure hasn't been met with much enthusiasm from the driver group, though, with Shane van Gisbergen and Andre Heimgartner questioning whether it will improve the racing after practice today.