Darwin Supercars: Mostert fastest in opening practice

Times started out in the low 1m07s, Reynolds leading the way after the first runs with a 1m07.055s.

On the 10-minute mark Scott McLaughlin moved to within four-hundredths of Reynolds' time, before closing the gap down to two-hundredths a lap later.

Reynolds swiftly remerged and lowered his own benchmark, becoming the first man into the sixes with a 1m06.785s on 15 minutes.

With a little under 10 minutes to go Anton De Pasquale made it an Erebus one-two, moving into second with a 1m06.966s.

The green tyre runs started with three minutes to go, the likes of Scott Pye and Simona de Silvestro quickly moving into the top three.

Mostert then went fastest a minute from the end with a 1m06.721s, putting a Mustang on top for the first time all session with a second fresh tyre run.

"These practices are hard to read as to where you exactly are," said the Tickford driver.

"We've got some work to do on the car. We got a read on the balance, we struggled a bit out there. But overall it wasn't a bad hit-out.

"I think the same guys will still be the guys to beat. We've got a bit of work to do."

Reynolds ended up second, as a late improvement from Shane van Gisbergen left the Red Bull Holden driver in third.

Lee Holdsworth was another late improver to slot into fourth, as Pye and de Silvestro were shuffled back to fifth and six respectively.

De Pasquale ended up back in seventh, followed by Will Davison, Todd Hazelwood and Cam Waters.

Scott McLaughlin finished down in 11th, after initially focussing on race runs and then going too deep into Turn 1 late in the session.

“We did a race run and I unfortunately had a lock-up into Turn 1 there,” he said.

“It was pretty big and the flat spot was pretty big.

“We made a little change in the front that will probably affect my braking. So we’ll go back there and find it a different way.”

Jamie Whincup was just 12th, while a minor throttle issue left Fabian Coulthard way down in 16th.

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Mustang GT	1'06.7219
2	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.7859	0.0640
3	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.8163	0.0944
4	5	Lee Holdsworth	Ford Mustang GT	1'06.8303	0.1084
5	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.8551	0.1332
6	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	1'06.8688	0.1469
7	99	Anton De Pasquale	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.9123	0.1904
8	23	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	1'06.9132	0.1913
9	35	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.9726	0.2507
10	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	1'07.0468	0.3249
11	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Mustang GT	1'07.0762	0.3543
12	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	1'07.1005	0.3786
13	19	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	1'07.1638	0.4419
14	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore ZB	1'07.1913	0.4694
15	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	1'07.2851	0.5632
16	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Mustang GT	1'07.3129	0.5910
17	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	1'07.4277	0.7058
18	34	James Golding	Holden Commodore ZB	1'07.4399	0.7180
19	18	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	1'07.4469	0.7250
20	21	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	1'07.6075	0.8856
21	7	Andre Heimgartner	Nissan Altima	1'07.6613	0.9394
22	22	James Courtney	Holden Commodore ZB	1'07.6746	0.9527
23	33	Chris Pither	Holden Commodore ZB	1'07.8772	1.1553
24	3	Garry Jacobson	Nissan Altima	1'08.2141	1.4922
25	4	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.7469	2.0250