Phillip Island Supercars: Courtney fastest in opening practice

It was Holdens on top across the 40-minute session, Scott Pye leading the early running with a 1m31.465s set inside the first 10 minutes.

David Reynolds then went quickest with a 1m31.358s shortly afterwards, before Courtney jumped to the top with a 1m30.936s with 10 minutes of the session left to run.

With less than three minutes to go Courtney improved to a 1m30.646s, good enough to secure P1.

"It’s been great. We rolled out this morning and straight away the thing went up to the top," said Courtney.

"The platform feels really quite stable, quite consistent in these long, loaded corners. With that stability through the corners it gives us drivers a lot better idea of the grip level you’ve got, so then you can use all of it.

"In previous years here the cars have been really quite nervous. I couldn’t be happier at the moment.

"I don’t know what everyone else was doing, but our car feels good."

McLaughlin was second fastest, just 0.03s off Courtney, but it was hardly a trouble-free session for the Penske star. He fell victim to the tyre-killing nature of the Phillip Island layout, suffering a front-right failure midway through the session while on a race run.

"We were doing a race run and you want to find out where things are," said DJR Team Penske team principal Ryan Story.

"It wasn’t exactly the best set of tyres that we brought with us either. We know where that limit is now, by default, and we learnt a little bit there."

Shane van Gisbergen was third fastest, jumping from well outside the Top 10 with his final lap. Triple Eight teammate Craig Lowndes did likewise, settling into fourth with a late effort.

Cam Waters was the best of the Tickford Fords in fifth, ahead of Nick Percat and Pye, who was shuffled back to seventh.

Fabian Coulthard was eighth quickest, Reynolds ninth after never improving on that early lap, with Garth Tander rounding out the Top 10.

Todd Hazelwood was the surprise of the session with the 11th quickest time, while Rick Kelly was the best placed Nissan in 12th.

There were some big names outside the top half of the field, with points leader Jamie Whincup just 17th fastest. Chaz Mostert was even further back, finishing 19th after an off at Southern Loop early in the session.

la	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	25	James Courtney	Holden Commodore ZB	1'30.6461
2	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG X	1'30.6765	0.0304
3	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	1'30.7240	0.0779
4	888	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore ZB	1'30.7565	0.1104
5	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG X	1'30.7798	0.1337
6	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	1'31.0308	0.3847
7	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	1'31.0386	0.3925
8	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Falcon FG X	1'31.2631	0.6170
9	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore ZB	1'31.3582	0.7121
10	33	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore ZB	1'31.3796	0.7335
11	35	Todd Hazelwood	Ford Falcon FG X	1'31.5911	0.9450
12	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	1'31.6025	0.9564
13	18	Lee Holdsworth	Holden Commodore ZB	1'31.6720	1.0259
14	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	1'31.6979	1.0518
15	230	Will Davison	Ford Falcon FG X	1'31.7027	1.0566
16	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG X	1'31.7103	1.0642
17	1	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	1'31.7505	1.1044
18	99	Anton de Pasquale	Holden Commodore ZB	1'31.7641	1.1180
19	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG X	1'31.8199	1.1738
20	56	Richie Stanaway	Ford Falcon FG X	1'31.8880	1.2419
21	7	Andre Heimgartner	Nissan Altima	1'31.9420	1.2959
22	23	Michael Caruso	Nissan Altima	1'31.9484	1.3023
23	34	James Golding	Holden Commodore ZB	1'32.1606	1.5145
24	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore ZB	1'32.3757	1.7296
25	21	Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore ZB	1'32.4100	1.7639
26	19	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	1'32.5306	1.8845