Newcastle Supercars: Whincup sets Friday pace

The seven-time series champion needed two cracks on his final run, his first qualifying simulation ruined when he ran wide at Turn 11.

But his fresh Dunlop rubber was up for a second lap, Whincup pipping Tickford driver Waters by five-thousandths courtesy of a 1m10.317s.

"It's a tough little circuit and that's all part of the challenge," he said. 

"My car didn't feel that flash then on good tyres, but it's clearly quick. I think we've got some work to do tomorrow, but for Practice 2, we'll take it. 

"I think our drive is okay, we're just struggling with a bit of turn. We'll work on getting [the car] to turn through that change of direction a little bit faster. 

"If we can do that, I think we'll improve for tomorrow."

Waters had set his time just seconds earlier, finally disposing long-time pacesetter Shane van Gisbergen off top spot.

Van Gisbergen hung on to third despite his lap coming much earlier in the session, followed by fellow Kiwi Scott McLaughlin and Erebus star David Reynolds.

That latter caused the only red flag in the half-hour session, a trip down the Turn 1 escape road followed by a comical attempt to find reverse gear and get going again.

"It's pretty embarrassing, isn't it?" he said. "I looked like a goose down there. I couldn't get reverse, I had to turn the car off. It's not my finest hour.

"I can't believe I'm a tenth off and I'm only fifth, it's very, very close. If I fix up Turn 1 I think we'll be further up the front. My car is not too bad, we just made a few adjustments then and there's more to come I think."

Mark Winterbottom and James Courtney were sixth and seventh, Fabian Coulthard, Todd Hazelwood and Lee Holdsworth completing the Top 10.

Super sub Warren Luff, meanwhile, was 21st fastest, the enduro regular making an unexpected appearance in place of Scott Pye, who was hospitalised with illness between sessions.

Practice 2 results:

Cla	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	1'10.317
2	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	1'10.322	0.005
3	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	1'10.377	0.060
4	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Mustang GT	1'10.383	0.066
5	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore ZB	1'10.423	0.106
6	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	1'10.424	0.107
7	James Courtney	Holden Commodore ZB	1'10.445	0.128
8	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Mustang GT	1'10.447	0.130
9	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	1'10.528	0.211
10	Lee Holdsworth	Ford Mustang GT	1'10.572	0.254
11	Anton De Pasquale	Holden Commodore ZB	1'10.574	0.256
12	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	1'10.605	0.288
13	Chaz Mostert	Ford Mustang GT	1'10.632	0.314
14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore ZB	1'10.694	0.377
15	Andre Heimgartner	Nissan Altima	1'10.704	0.387
16	Richie Stanaway	Holden Commodore ZB	1'10.771	0.454
17	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	1'10.824	0.506
18	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	1'10.888	0.571
19	Garry Jacobson	Nissan Altima	1'10.905	0.588
20	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	1'10.920	0.602
21	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	1'11.068	0.751
22	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	1'11.102	0.785
23	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	1'11.102	0.785
24	James Golding	Holden Commodore ZB	1'11.430	1.113
View full results