The Bend Supercars: McLaughlin lowers practice lap record

The session had barely got going when it was red flagged for debris, Macauley Jones the culprit thanks to a run-in with a foam sign on the outside of the last corner.

To that point the quick man was Cam Waters, who had set a 1m49.720s on his opening run.

That time didn't last long once the session restarted, McLaughlin firing straight to the top with a 1m48.931s.

Once in front, there was no stopping the runaway points leader. He lowered the benchmark to a 1m48.403s with 10 minutes to go, before logging a record-breaking 1m47.986s on his final run.

That left his margin over the field at a whopping 0.77s, Chaz Mostert the best of the rest with a 1m48.759s.

Anton De Pasquale was the top Commodore in the field, a 1m48.784s leaving him third quickest.

Tickford pair Waters and Lee Holdsworth were fourth and fifth quickest, followed by Scott Pye, Will Davison and Mark Winterbottom.

James Courtney capped off a promising morning for Walkinshaw Andretti United with P9, ahead of Brad Jones Racing pair Tim Slade and Jones.

It was another horror session for Triple Eight, with both Red Bull Holdens nowhere near the pace.

Shane van Gisbergen spent most of the first half of the session on the grass, with four separate offs. When he did finally piece together a lap it was only good enough for 20th.

Jamie Whincup's session was a little less spectacular, but just as unsuccessful, the seven-time series champ just 24th quickest.

"We’re not in a good place," said Whincup. "There’s no secrets, we have got a lot of work to do, we’re just trying to find a balance.

"We don’t have front, we don’t have rear and we just don’t have overall grip as well. So we have got a bit to do.

"There is hope that we can still tune it up for qualifying but we need to make the right calls. We need to make educated guesses and make right calls in the next hour or so."

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Interval
1	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Mustang GT	1'47.9865
2	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Mustang GT	1'48.7594	0.7729	0.7729
3	99	Anton De Pasquale	Holden Commodore ZB	1'48.7844	0.7979	0.0250
4	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	1'48.9334	0.9469	0.1490
5	5	Lee Holdsworth	Ford Mustang GT	1'48.9920	1.0055	0.0586
6	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	1'48.9933	1.0068	0.0013
7	23	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	1'49.1473	1.1608	0.1540
8	18	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	1'49.1759	1.1894	0.0286
9	22	James Courtney	Holden Commodore ZB	1'49.2054	1.2189	0.0295
10	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore ZB	1'49.2236	1.2371	0.0182
11	21	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	1'49.2534	1.2669	0.0298
12	35	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	1'49.2791	1.2926	0.0257
13	3	Garry Jacobson	Nissan Altima	1'49.3341	1.3476	0.0550
14	7	Andre Heimgartner	Nissan Altima	1'49.3681	1.3816	0.0340
15	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Mustang GT	1'49.3970	1.4105	0.0289
16	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore ZB	1'49.4303	1.4438	0.0333
17	66	Thomas Randle	Ford Mustang GT	1'49.5894	1.6029	0.1591
18	4	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	1'49.6247	1.6382	0.0353
19	34	James Golding	Holden Commodore ZB	1'49.6496	1.6631	0.0249
20	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	1'49.6618	1.6753	0.0122
21	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	1'49.6645	1.6780	0.0027
22	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	1'49.7821	1.7956	0.1176
23	19	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	1'49.9971	2.0106	0.2150
24	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	1'50.0142	2.0277	0.0171
25	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	1'50.1088	2.1223	0.0946
26	33	Richie Stanaway	Holden Commodore ZB	1'50.2410	2.2545	0.1322