Winton Supercars: McLaughlin tops final practice

The points leader had a couple of goes at the top of the times, first going fastest 17 minutes in with a 1m20.099s.

He was then shuffled to the back end of the top five, before securing top spot for good with a little over 10 minutes to go with a 1m19.460s. That was good enough to hold off a late charge from teammate Fabian Coulthard by 0.2s, despite McLaughlin not going quicker on a better set of used rubber at the end.

"It was good," said McLaughlin. "The last set of tyres wasn't new, but they didn't feel as good as the previous set of pre-marked. We thought that were worse tyres, the ones I did the 19.4 on, but they were actually really good.

"We concentrated on the quali car this morning, luckily it was dry, we got away with that. It feels good. We got plenty of goes, which is always nice as as a driver; you just keep throwing decent tyres at it, trying different things with lines.

"The track is fast an the cars are fast, so hopefully we stay up there."

Nissan pair Michael Caruso and Rick Kelly were third and fourth fastest respectively, while Walkinshaw Andretti United pair Scott Pye and James Courtney – who returned after missing yesterday through illness – were fifth and sixth.

Rookie Anton de Pasquale was seventh despite not getting a green tyre gain, while Cam Waters, Lee Holdsworth, and David Reynolds rounded out the Top 10.

There wasn't a single Triple Eight car at the front, Shane van Gisbergen the best of the trio down in 17th. Craig Lowndes was just 19th, while Jamie Whincup was left stranded down in 24th.

"We used good tyres yesterday and not so good today, so I wouldn't look too much on the sheets," said Whincup.

"We're chipping away with out car set-up, not much to report. We shouldn't have been as slow as that, but there's no panic stations. If we're back down that dar in quali we'll be a bit nervous, but we think we've got the tools for the job."

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG X	1'19.4601
2	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Falcon FG X	1'19.6696	0.2095
3	23	Michael Caruso	Nissan Altima	1'19.6797	0.2196
4	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	1'19.7104	0.2503
5	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	1'19.7650	0.3049
6	25	Jack Perkins	Holden Commodore ZB	1'19.7893	0.3292
7	99	Anton de Pasquale	Holden Commodore ZB	1'19.7910	0.3309
8	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG X	1'19.8761	0.4160
9	400	Lee Holdsworth	Holden Commodore ZB	1'19.8967	0.4366
10	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore ZB	1'19.8980	0.4379
11	33	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore ZB	1'19.8982	0.4381
12	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG X	1'19.9919	0.5318
13	56	Richie Stanaway	Ford Falcon FG X	1'20.0149	0.5548
14	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore ZB	1'20.0343	0.5742
15	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG X	1'20.0456	0.5855
16	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	1'20.0682	0.6081
17	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	1'20.0765	0.6164
18	7	Andre Heimgartner	Nissan Altima	1'20.1097	0.6496
19	888	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore ZB	1'20.2337	0.7736
20	230	Will Davison	Ford Falcon FG X	1'20.3061	0.8460
21	19	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	1'20.3268	0.8667
22	35	Todd Hazelwood	Ford Falcon FG X	1'20.3354	0.8753
23	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	1'20.3441	0.8840
24	1	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	1'20.3629	0.9028
25	34	James Golding	Holden Commodore ZB	1'20.5666	1.1065
26	21	Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore ZB	1'20.5737	1.1136