Bathurst 1000: Caruso tops final pre-qualifying practice

After the first hint of dry running in this morning's co-driver practice session, the rain returned for the start of the final all-in pre-qualifying session.

That meant very limited running, times left stranded back in the mid-2m29s as only half the field ventured out in the first half an hour.

It was all about the Tickford Fords during that early rain, Chaz Mostert, Richie Stanaway and Cam Waters occupying the top three while Mark Winterbottom was not far behind in fifth in his repaired Falcon.

Conditions did show signs of improving slightly inside the final quarter of the session, Mostert and Stanaway improving into the 2m26s with around 10 minutes to go.

With six minutes to go Nick Percat got in on the act, pipping Stanaway by 0.1s with a 2m26.582s. But just when that looked like it would be the benchmark, Caruso put in a blinder of a final lap to go top with a 2m26.270.

Percat did look to respond right at the flag, but despite a purple first sector ended up 0.06s short of the Nissan driver.

He was then relegated to third right at the flag, Rick Kelly making it a Nissan one-two with a time just 0.01s shy of Caruso's effort.

“We all sort of guessed yesterday that the wet weather would be done by now, so I just thought what have we got to lose?” Caruso said.

“We’re here, we’ve got tyres, we’ve got petrol, let’s get out there and go around just in case it is wet in quali.

“It was a good little hit-out. We’ve had our fair share of dramas, we’ve already had an engine change, but it’s obviously running well now."

Stanaway dropped back to fourth with those late improvements, followed by teammate Mostert and another Nissan driver in Andre Heimgartner.

The next on-track session is qualifying at 3:50pm this afternoon.

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	23	Michael Caruso Dean Fiore	Nissan Altima	2'26.2070
2	11	Rick Kelly Garry Jacobson	Nissan Altima	2'26.2236	0.0166
3	8	Nick Percat Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	2'26.2708	0.0638
4	56	Richie Stanaway Steven Owen	Ford Falcon FG X	2'26.7148	0.5078
5	55	Chaz Mostert James Moffat	Ford Falcon FG X	2'26.9914	0.7844
6	7	Andre Heimgartner Aaren Russell	Nissan Altima	2'27.4470	1.2400
7	9	David Reynolds Luke Youlden	Holden Commodore ZB	2'28.0907	1.8837
8	17	Alexandre Prémat Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG X	2'28.7250	2.5180
9	12	Tony D'Alberto Fabian Coulthard	Ford Falcon FG X	2'28.7984	2.5914
10	6	David Russell Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG X	2'29.3805	3.1735
11	33	Garth Tander Chris Pither	Holden Commodore ZB	2'30.4181	4.2111
12	35	Bryce Fullwood Todd Hazelwood	Ford Falcon FG X	2'30.5324	4.3254
13	18	Lee Holdsworth Jason Bright	Holden Commodore ZB	2'31.0337	4.8267
14	78	Simona de Silvestro Alex Rullo	Nissan Altima	2'31.0575	4.8505
15	5	Mark Winterbottom Dean Canto	Ford Falcon FG X	2'32.4468	6.2398
16	19	Jonathon Webb Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	2'33.2194	7.0124
17	99	Will Brown Anton de	Holden Commodore ZB	2'34.4019	8.1949
18	888	Steven Richards Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore ZB	2'34.5427	8.3357
19	34	James Golding Richard Muscat	Holden Commodore ZB	2'34.7116	8.5046
20	230	Alex Davison Will Davison	Ford Falcon FG X	2'36.5893	10.3823
	1	Jamie Whincup Paul Dumbrell	Holden Commodore ZB