Practice report

Bathurst 1000: McLaughlin lowers lap record, Whincup crashes

Scott McLaughlin set a new Mount Panorama benchmark in final pre-qualifying practice for the Bathurst 1000, as Jamie Whincup ended the session in the wall.

Having lowered his own record from 2017 in practice yesterday, McLaughlin took another chunk out of the benchmark with an incredible 2m03.481s.

That put him almost three-tenths clear of his Thursday lap, and left him 0.5s ahead of the field heading into this afternoon's qualifying session.

"It was a full-on lap and then you get told on the radio the team wants you to go a bit faster in the first sector. It’s like ‘come on boys, give me something!’,” said McLaughlin.

“You’ve got to have some sort of feel in case it is dry for qualifying.

“I’m not sure if it’s going to be wet as well. I’m within my limit, I am being safe, but I’m hanging on to a point where a 3.4, it’s pretty fast across the top for anyone.

“It’s cool to be there, but I think there’s more in it yet.”

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While it was all good news for one outright contender, another ended up in the fence.

Whincup was caught out when Richie Stanaway spun in front of him heading into The Dipper, the #888 Holden ending up in the wall after narrowly avoiding the GRM car.

The seven-time series champion had been gearing up for a qualifying simulation, the crash leaving him down in 14th for the session.

"I saw Richie go in as I came over Skyline," Whincup explained.

"If you look at it on TV it all looks pretty flat there, but it’s massively downhill. I just tried to scrub off as much speed as I possibly could while going around him. Going around means you’re in the marbles as well.

"It hit the wall. Not massive, I’d had a lot worse, [but it] smashed the front-left corner.

"Rear has got the camber knocked off it, but hopefully it’s not transaxle or anything like that.

"I’m pretty confident we’ll be out for qualifying. I tried to give the boys as much info as I could so we can start preparing.

"It’s broken a front-upright, front wishbones, trailing arm. There’s no fluid anywhere so radiator looks intact.

"The front splitter is smashed across and it just kooks like a rear trailing arm at the back as well."

Stanaway's car was also left with reasonable damage from his impact.

Adding to the drama was a late off for the Walkinshaw Andretti United wildcard car, Alexander Rossi firing the Holden into the gravel at the first corner with four minutes to go.

Following a lengthy red flag for the Whincup/Stanaway clean up, officials elected to not restart the session after Rossi went off.

That left Andre Heimgartner in second, the Nissan driver becoming the fifth driver to join the so-called 'Threes Club' with a 2m03.985s.

Cam Waters continued his promising form with the third quickest time, with David Reynolds fourth despite having better laps twice cut short by red flags.

Qualifying, which will determine both who makes the Top 10 Shootout and positions 11-26, kicks off at 4pm local time.

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	17	Scott McLaughlin Alexandre Prémat	Ford Mustang GT	14	2'03.4813			181.135
2	7	Andre Heimgartner Bryce Fullwood	Nissan Altima	17	2'03.9853	0.5040	0.5040	180.398
3	6	Cameron Waters Michael Caruso	Ford Mustang GT	16	2'04.0248	0.5435	0.0395	180.341
4	9	David Reynolds Luke Youlden	Holden Commodore ZB	17	2'04.1919	0.7106	0.1671	180.098
5	12	Fabian Coulthard Tony D'Alberto	Ford Mustang GT	16	2'04.2325	0.7512	0.0406	180.039
6	97	Shane van Gisbergen Garth Tander	Holden Commodore ZB	19	2'04.2852	0.8039	0.0527	179.963
7	5	Lee Holdsworth Thomas Randle	Ford Mustang GT	18	2'04.3370	0.8557	0.0518	179.888
8	2	Scott Pye Warren Luff	Holden Commodore ZB	16	2'04.4820	1.0007	0.1450	179.678
9	99	Anton De Pasquale Will Brown	Holden Commodore ZB	16	2'04.5004	1.0191	0.0184	179.652
10	34	James Golding Richard Muscat	Holden Commodore ZB	16	2'04.5240	1.0427	0.0236	179.618
11	18	Mark Winterbottom Steven Richards	Holden Commodore ZB	16	2'04.6103	1.1290	0.0863	179.493
12	15	Rick Kelly Dale Wood	Nissan Altima	14	2'04.6298	1.1485	0.0195	179.465
13	55	Chaz Mostert James Moffat	Ford Mustang GT	15	2'04.7297	1.2484	0.0999	179.322
14	3	Garry Jacobson Dean Fiore	Nissan Altima	17	2'04.7547	1.2734	0.0250	179.286
15	35	Todd Hazelwood Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	14	2'04.8433	1.3620	0.0886	179.158
16	33	Richie Stanaway Chris Pither	Holden Commodore ZB	13	2'04.8815	1.4002	0.0382	179.104
17	888	Jamie Whincup Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore ZB	14	2'04.9580	1.4767	0.0765	178.994
18	8	Nick Percat Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore ZB	14	2'05.0038	1.5225	0.0458	178.928
19	22	James Courtney Jack Perkins	Holden Commodore ZB	16	2'05.2185	1.7372	0.2147	178.622
20	23	Will Davison Alex Davison	Ford Mustang GT	15	2'05.2555	1.7742	0.0370	178.569
21	78	Simona de Silvestro Alex Rullo	Nissan Altima	16	2'05.2664	1.7851	0.0109	178.553
22	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore ZB	17	2'05.7105	2.2292	0.4441	177.923
23	56	Brodie Kostecki Jake Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	18	2'06.1389	2.6576	0.4284	177.318
24	21	Macauley Jones Dean Canto	Holden Commodore ZB	14	2'06.2179	2.7366	0.0790	177.207
25	27	Alexander Rossi James Hinchliffe	Holden Commodore ZB	13	2'06.3885	2.9072	0.1706	176.968
26	19	Jack Le Brocq Jonathon Webb	Holden Commodore ZB	16	2'06.8144	3.3331	0.4259	176.374