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Practice report

Tailem Bend Supercars: Van Gisbergen dominates second practice

Shane van Gisbergen ended the second Supercars practice session at The Bend Motorsport Park a full 0.5s clear of teammate Jamie Whincup, and the best part of a second ahead of the best non-Triple Eight car.

Shane van Gisbergen, Triple Eight Race Engineering Holden

Shane van Gisbergen, Triple Eight Race Engineering Holden

Supercars

The Kiwi was the early pacesetter in the second 45-minute session at the all-new circuit, going top with a 1m50.165 – just 0.03s off Tim Slade's P1 benchmark – on his first attempt.

It wasn't until inside the final two minutes of the session that the early time was finally beaten, and even then there was only a few seconds when van Gisbergen wasn't on top.

That brief moment was Slade becoming the first driver to dip under the 1m50s bracket with a 1m49.709s – only for van Gisbergen to go almost a second quicker with a remarkable 1m48.749s.

That time left van Gisbergen not only as the only man in the 1m48s, 0.57ss clear of late improver Whincup and 0.95s ahead of Slade.

"There's still a fair bit left, and there's no way we're genuinely a second faster," said van Gisbergen.

"The track is tough, there is probably people making mistakes. There's half a second in driving and a fair bit left in the car.We'll see the evolution of that over the weekend. But it's definitely a good way to start, it's a rush. It's fun."

Chaz Mostert was fourth fastest, despite being 1.4s off the pace and generally unhappy with his Tickford Ford.

"If you look at the times, we're a fair it off the front couple," said Mostert. "The way the car is feeling, that's the time it's given us and that's how far we feel like we're off the competition.

"To be fourth, I'm super surprised. It doesn't mean we have to get completely lost, we've probably got a good base to be inside that Top 10 for tomorrow. But definitely some work to be done."

Nick Percat was fifth quickest, followed by a trio of Nissans, Rick Kelly leading Simona de Silvestro and Andre Heimgartner.

Mark Winterbottom and Scott Pye rounded out the Top 10.

The trend of drivers pushing the limits in Practice 1 carried over to Practice 2, trips off the tarmac and onto the grass a regular occurrence.

Craig Lowndes in particular endured a number of wild rides off-track, and ended the session way down in 27th, 3.6s behind teammate van Gisbergen.

"There's a lot of debris," said the veteran. "I'm not going to use that as an excuse, it's just a lot of dust and dirt because people are cutting corners. We hit a few of them.

"We tried to do a race run then, and it didn't work. Obviously we went outside the window. So we tried to scramble back to a qualifying car and we had a crack on a new tyre at the end there but didn't complete the lap. The first part of that lap is pretty much matched on Jamie and Shane, so it's not all dire, but we need to do the time."

Cla # Driver Car Time Gap
1 97 New Zealand Shane van Gisbergen Holden Commodore ZB 1'48.7499  
2 1 Australia Jamie Whincup Holden Commodore ZB 1'49.3231 0.5732
3 14 Australia Tim Slade Holden Commodore ZB 1'49.7093 0.9594
4 55 Australia Chaz Mostert Ford Falcon FG X 1'50.2403 1.4904
5 8 Australia Nick Percat Holden Commodore ZB 1'50.3341 1.5842
6 15 Australia Rick Kelly Nissan Altima 1'50.4181 1.6682
7 78 Switzerland Simona de Silvestro Nissan Altima 1'50.4997 1.7498
8 7 New Zealand Andre Heimgartner Nissan Altima 1'50.5492 1.7993
9 5 Australia Mark Winterbottom Ford Falcon FG X 1'50.5599 1.8100
10 2 Australia Scott Pye Holden Commodore ZB 1'50.5883 1.8384
11 21 Australia Tim Blanchard Holden Commodore ZB 1'50.7163 1.9664
12 17 New Zealand Scott McLaughlin Ford Falcon FG X 1'50.8917 2.1418
13 230 Australia Will Davison Ford Falcon FG X 1'50.9424 2.1925
14 18 Australia Lee Holdsworth
Australia Jason Bright
Holden Commodore ZB 1'50.9834 2.2335
15 9 Australia David Reynolds Holden Commodore ZB 1'51.0157 2.2658
16 23 Australia Michael Caruso Nissan Altima 1'51.0391 2.2892
17 56 New Zealand Richie Stanaway Ford Falcon FG X 1'51.0515 2.3016
18 4 Australia Macauley Jones Holden Commodore ZB 1'51.0994 2.3495
19 35 Australia Todd Hazelwood Ford Falcon FG X 1'51.1867 2.4368
20 25 Australia James Courtney Holden Commodore ZB 1'51.1909 2.4410
21 6 Australia Cameron Waters Ford Falcon FG X 1'51.2037 2.4538
22 99 Anton de Holden Commodore ZB 1'51.2069 2.4570
23 19 Australia Jack Le Brocq Holden Commodore ZB 1'51.8586 3.1087
24 33 Australia Garth Tander Holden Commodore ZB 1'51.9310 3.1811
25 12 New Zealand Fabian Coulthard Ford Falcon FG X 1'52.0251 3.2752
26 42 Australia Kurt Kostecki Holden Commodore ZB 1'52.2994 3.5495
27 888 Australia Craig Lowndes Holden Commodore ZB 1'52.4465 3.6966
28 34 Australia James Golding Holden Commodore ZB 1'54.1096 5.3597

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