Phillip Island V8s: Winterbottom tops Saturday warm-up

The early running in the 15-minute session wound up being crucial, thanks to a light sprinkling of rain that made improving on the second run impossible.

That was good news for Prodrive’s Winterbottom, the reigning V8 Supercars champion going fastest on his first run with a 1m31.317s, that then time holding up until the end as the rain ruined the usual flurry of late times.

“We went out on used tyres initially, and made big gains with the car,” said Winterbottom. “[We] put tyres on, got excited for that ‘Happy Hour’ – and just didn’t get the run.”

Shane van Gisbergen was second fastest, ahead of Red Bull Racing Australia team-mate Jamie Whincup, who was on to improve on his second run before being caught out by the damp circuit in the final sector and losing the best part of a second.

“We threw some greens on, but it was too wet at the back,” said Whincup. “We’re there or thereabouts.”

Lowndes made it three Triple Eight cars in the Top 4 with a 1m31.693s, while Rick Kelly kept Nissan’s promising weekend going with P5.

Scott McLaughlin, who broke the Phillip Island practice lap record yesterday, was sixth fastest, despite setting the best S1.

“The car felt good on that first run before the rain came,” said the Kiwi.“We had the fastest first sector. Let’s see how we go in qualifying.”

McLaughlin’s team-mate James Moffat was seventh, ahead of Nissan’s Michael Caruso and the DJR Team Penske pair of Fabian Coulthard and Scott Pye.