Townsville Supercars: Van Gisbergen fastest in opening practice
Shane van Gisbergen led David Reynolds and Craig Lowndes in the opening 40-minute Supercars practice in Townsville.
Shane van Gisbergen, Triple Eight Race Engineering Holden
Supercars
Jamie Whincup spent much of the session on top thanks to an early 1m13.192s, that time not beaten until well inside the final 10 minutes when Lowndes lowered the benchmark to 1m12.912s.
But it was Lowndes and Whincup's Triple Eight teammate van Gisbergen that had the last laugh, the Kiwi going quickest with a 1m12.670s with two minutes of the session to go.
"We had decent tyres, but the car felt pretty good," said van Gisbergen.
"We were all up there from the start, which is a good sign, now we’ve just got to keep up with the track.
"Hopefully the weather holds out. I don’t think we’ve ever had a wet tyre on the car yet. We’ll see what happens."
David Reynolds' session got off to a smokey start, his Erebus Holden shedding a power steering line on his first run. He was back out within 15 minutes, and ended up second fastest thanks to a 1m12.746s inside the last minute.
“We had a small steering failure. You probably saw the smoke pissing out the rear of my car,” he said.
“The steering went heavy, so we came in, bled it, reconnected it, and it was alright, we just lost the first couple of runs."
Lowndes – who this morning announced his impending retirement – ended up third, while Whincup was fourth after improving on his early time with a 1m13.062s.
Rick Kelly was the best-placed Nissan in fifth, ahead of James Courtney and leading Tickford driver Chaz Mostert.
Andre Heimgartner and Scott Pye were next, with Lee Holdsworth rounding out the Top 10.
Both of the Penske Fords were off the pace, Scott McLaughlin just 12th quickest while Fabian Coulthard was way down in 22nd.
"We just ran the one set [of tyres] and had an idea where the track was at, did our time and then did a 15-lap stint,” said points leader McLaughlin.
“Obviously we know the degradation over the last few rounds has been a bit different. It felt alright.”
Cla | # | Driver | Car | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 97 | Shane van Gisbergen | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'12.6700 | |
2 | 9 | David Reynolds | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'12.7467 | 0.0767 |
3 | 888 | Craig Lowndes | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'12.9126 | 0.2426 |
4 | 1 | Jamie Whincup | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'13.0625 | 0.3925 |
5 | 15 | Rick Kelly | Nissan Altima | 1'13.0784 | 0.4084 |
6 | 25 | James Courtney | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'13.1252 | 0.4552 |
7 | 55 | Chaz Mostert | Ford Falcon FG X | 1'13.1285 | 0.4585 |
8 | 7 | Andre Heimgartner | Nissan Altima | 1'13.1758 | 0.5058 |
9 | 2 | Scott Pye | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'13.2282 | 0.5582 |
10 | 18 | Lee Holdsworth | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'13.2283 | 0.5583 |
11 | 19 | Jack Le Brocq | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'13.2850 | 0.6150 |
12 | 17 | Scott McLaughlin | Ford Falcon FG X | 1'13.2955 | 0.6255 |
13 | 8 | Nick Percat | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'13.3060 | 0.6360 |
14 | 230 | Will Davison | Ford Falcon FG X | 1'13.4680 | 0.7980 |
15 | 6 | Cameron Waters | Ford Falcon FG X | 1'13.5258 | 0.8558 |
16 | 99 | Anton de Pasquale | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'13.5300 | 0.8600 |
17 | 14 | Tim Slade | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'13.5455 | 0.8755 |
18 | 23 | Michael Caruso | Nissan Altima | 1'13.5796 | 0.9096 |
19 | 56 | Richie Stanaway | Ford Falcon FG X | 1'13.6571 | 0.9871 |
20 | 33 | Garth Tander | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'13.7278 | 1.0578 |
21 | 5 | Mark Winterbottom | Ford Falcon FG X | 1'13.7657 | 1.0957 |
22 | 12 | Fabian Coulthard | Ford Falcon FG X | 1'13.8154 | 1.1454 |
23 | 35 | Todd Hazelwood | Ford Falcon FG X | 1'13.8732 | 1.2032 |
24 | 78 | Simona de Silvestro | Nissan Altima | 1'14.0501 | 1.3801 |
25 | 21 | Tim Blanchard | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'14.2592 | 1.5892 |
26 | 34 | James Golding | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'14.6138 | 1.9438 |
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments