Newcastle Supercars: Whincup sets Friday pace
Triple Eight's Jamie Whincup topped the second Friday practice session in Newcastle, shading Cam Waters by 0.005s.
Photo by: Supercars
The seven-time series champion needed two cracks on his final run, his first qualifying simulation ruined when he ran wide at Turn 11.
But his fresh Dunlop rubber was up for a second lap, Whincup pipping Tickford driver Waters by five-thousandths courtesy of a 1m10.317s.
"It's a tough little circuit and that's all part of the challenge," he said.
"My car didn't feel that flash then on good tyres, but it's clearly quick. I think we've got some work to do tomorrow, but for Practice 2, we'll take it.
"I think our drive is okay, we're just struggling with a bit of turn. We'll work on getting [the car] to turn through that change of direction a little bit faster.
"If we can do that, I think we'll improve for tomorrow."
Waters had set his time just seconds earlier, finally disposing long-time pacesetter Shane van Gisbergen off top spot.
Van Gisbergen hung on to third despite his lap coming much earlier in the session, followed by fellow Kiwi Scott McLaughlin and Erebus star David Reynolds.
That latter caused the only red flag in the half-hour session, a trip down the Turn 1 escape road followed by a comical attempt to find reverse gear and get going again.
"It's pretty embarrassing, isn't it?" he said. "I looked like a goose down there. I couldn't get reverse, I had to turn the car off. It's not my finest hour.
"I can't believe I'm a tenth off and I'm only fifth, it's very, very close. If I fix up Turn 1 I think we'll be further up the front. My car is not too bad, we just made a few adjustments then and there's more to come I think."
Mark Winterbottom and James Courtney were sixth and seventh, Fabian Coulthard, Todd Hazelwood and Lee Holdsworth completing the Top 10.
Super sub Warren Luff, meanwhile, was 21st fastest, the enduro regular making an unexpected appearance in place of Scott Pye, who was hospitalised with illness between sessions.
Practice 2 results:
Cla | Driver | Car | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Jamie Whincup
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'10.317 | |
2 |
Cameron Waters
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'10.322 | 0.005 |
3 |
Shane van Gisbergen
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'10.377 | 0.060 |
4 |
Scott McLaughlin
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'10.383 | 0.066 |
5 |
David Reynolds
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'10.423 | 0.106 |
6 |
Mark Winterbottom
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'10.424 | 0.107 |
7 |
James Courtney
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'10.445 | 0.128 |
8 |
Fabian Coulthard
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'10.447 | 0.130 |
9 |
Todd Hazelwood
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'10.528 | 0.211 |
10 |
Lee Holdsworth
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'10.572 | 0.254 |
11 |
Anton De Pasquale
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'10.574 | 0.256 |
12 |
Nick Percat
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'10.605 | 0.288 |
13 |
Chaz Mostert
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'10.632 | 0.314 |
14 |
Tim Slade
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'10.694 | 0.377 |
15 |
Andre Heimgartner
|
Nissan Altima | 1'10.704 | 0.387 |
16 |
Richie Stanaway
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'10.771 | 0.454 |
17 |
Rick Kelly
|
Nissan Altima | 1'10.824 | 0.506 |
18 |
Will Davison
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'10.888 | 0.571 |
19 |
Garry Jacobson
|
Nissan Altima | 1'10.905 | 0.588 |
20 |
Macauley Jones
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'10.920 | 0.602 |
21 |
Scott Pye
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'11.068 | 0.751 |
22 |
Jack Le Brocq
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'11.102 | 0.785 |
23 |
Simona de Silvestro
|
Nissan Altima | 1'11.102 | 0.785 |
24 |
James Golding
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'11.430 | 1.113 |
View full results |
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