Townsville Supercars: Reynolds tops opening practice
David Reynolds topped the opening Supercars practice session on the streets of Townsville.
Photo by: Daniel Kalisz / Motorsport Images
The Erebus driver popped out on top with 60 seconds of the 40-minute session to go, displacing Nissan’s Todd Kelly from top spot with a 1m12.892s.
It was a case of the usual suspects at the top in the earning running, Scott McLaughlin going fastest early with a 1m13.377s, before being replaced by Reynolds (1m13.205s), Chaz Mostert (1m13.150s) and Shane van Gisbergen (1m13.094s) in quick succession around the 10-minute mark.
Shortly before the mid-point in the session Kelly became the first to break into the 1m12s, the Nissan driver banking a 1m12.988s to go top.
That time almost stuck until the end, Reynolds the only driver able to find enough time during a flurry of improvements in the closing minutes to jump Kelly.
“It’s been really good since we rolled it out,” said Reynolds, who was in the Top 5 effectively the whole way through before that late P1 lap.
“We only did a couple of runs then. I’m still not 100 per cent confident with it; my mid sector through the fast stuff is all over the place, and the way we run our cars now it tends to be a bit worse for those fast left and rights. But otherwise it’s been really good.”
That meant Kelly ended up second, something even he admitted was surprising.
“We’re just trying to work out what we did then, and how we’re going to do it again,” he said.
“I was quite surprised, the lap felt eight out of 10 and it was fastest for most of the session – and I think a few people put another set of tyres, or even greens on. We’ve got a little bit of stuff to look at, hopefully we can stay up that end.”
Van Gisbergen’s early time was good enough for P3, ahead of Triple Eight teammate Craig Lowndes, who survived a scary spin at Turn 6 midway through the session before improving with a 1m13.140s.
Tim Slade was fifth, the Brad Jones Racing finding some time in the closing minutes, while Mostert was shuffled back to sixth.
Garth Tander was seventh, although it could have been much better; the Garry Rogers Motorsport driver had two purple sectors over Reynolds before running wide at Turn 11.
Will Davison was eighth, points leader Fabian Coulthard was ninth, with James Courtney in 10th.
There were some big names outside of the Top 10, including title contenders Jamie Whincup (12th) and Scott McLaughlin (13th). Mark Winterbottom’s was just 15th quickest, with Prodrive Racing teammate Cam Waters down in 19th.
Cla | # | Driver | Car | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 9 | David Reynolds | Holden Commodore VF | 1'12.8920 | |
2 | 7 | Todd Kelly | Nissan Altima | 1'12.9887 | 0.0967 |
3 | 97 | Shane van Gisbergen | Holden Commodore VF | 1'13.0945 | 0.2025 |
4 | 888 | Craig Lowndes | Holden Commodore VF | 1'13.1401 | 0.2481 |
5 | 14 | Tim Slade | Holden Commodore VF | 1'13.1497 | 0.2577 |
6 | 55 | Chaz Mostert | Ford Falcon FG-X | 1'13.1503 | 0.2583 |
7 | 33 | Garth Tander | Holden Commodore VF | 1'13.1840 | 0.2920 |
8 | 19 | Will Davison | Holden Commodore VF | 1'13.2071 | 0.3151 |
9 | 12 | Fabian Coulthard | Ford Falcon FG-X | 1'13.2652 | 0.3732 |
10 | 22 | James Courtney | Holden Commodore VF | 1'13.3090 | 0.4170 |
11 | 18 | Lee Holdsworth | Holden Commodore VF | 1'13.3497 | 0.4577 |
12 | 88 | Jamie Whincup | Holden Commodore VF | 1'13.3559 | 0.4639 |
13 | 17 | Scott McLaughlin | Ford Falcon FG-X | 1'13.3774 | 0.4854 |
14 | 34 | James Moffat | Holden Commodore VF | 1'13.4108 | 0.5188 |
15 | 5 | Mark Winterbottom | Ford Falcon FG-X | 1'13.5015 | 0.6095 |
16 | 15 | Rick Kelly | Nissan Altima | 1'13.5353 | 0.6433 |
17 | 23 | Michael Caruso | Nissan Altima | 1'13.5549 | 0.6629 |
18 | 8 | Nick Percat | Holden Commodore VF | 1'13.5871 | 0.6951 |
19 | 6 | Cameron Waters | Ford Falcon FG-X | 1'13.7339 | 0.8419 |
20 | 99 | Dale Wood | Holden Commodore VF | 1'13.7434 | 0.8514 |
21 | 56 | Jason Bright | Ford Falcon FG-X | 1'13.7833 | 0.8913 |
22 | 2 | Scott Pye | Holden Commodore VF | 1'13.9086 | 1.0166 |
23 | 78 | Simona de Silvestro | Nissan Altima | 1'14.1367 | 1.2447 |
24 | 21 | Tim Blanchard | Holden Commodore VF | 1'14.2944 | 1.4024 |
25 | 62 | Alex Rullo | Holden Commodore VF | 1'14.3537 | 1.4617 |
26 | 3 | Aaren Russell | Holden Commodore VF | 1'14.5016 | 1.6096 |
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