Sandown 500: Lowndes ends Friday on top
Craig Lowndes set the co-driver pace to round out Friday practice for the Sandown 500.
The Red Bull Holden driver spent much of the half-hour session sitting behind teammate Garth Tander, before a rapid two-lap stint on a better set of roaded Dunlops at the end.
The first of those was a 1m07.916s, good enough to put him top, before he improved to a 1m07.835s next time around.
While falling just short of the new lap record set by David Reynolds earlier today, Lowndes' time was good enough to hold off late improvements from Tony D'Alberto and Dale Wood.
“We got told a rain shower was coming, so we were all hustling at the start to get some laps in,” said Lowndes.
“We made the car better over that session, there’s no doubt about that. And that’s always what I’ve loved to do, develop a car.
“We went up on springs, down on springs, we played with shocks, we did everything.
“We got a bit of a balance we wanted, put a set of tyres on that Jamie had previously run. It took three laps though to get the tyre pressures and the balance right, but we were hustling it.”
Penske driver D'Alberto was just 0.06s shy of Lowndes, with Kelly Racing's Wood within a tenth of the ultimate pace as well.
Having not improved at the end, Tander slipped back to fourth ahead of Jack Perkins and Ash Walsh.
Will Brown was seventh in the Erebus Holden, James Moffat and Alex Premat the next best Mustangs behind D'Alberto in eighth and ninth.
Tom Randle rounded out the Top 10, shading Tickford teammate Michael Caruso.
Practice results:
Cla | # | Driver | Car | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 888 | Jamie Whincup Craig Lowndes |
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.835 | |
2 | 12 | Fabian Coulthard Tony D'Alberto |
Ford Mustang GT | 1'07.895 | 0.060 |
3 | 15 | Rick Kelly Dale Wood |
Nissan Altima | 1'07.934 | 0.098 |
4 | 97 | Shane van Gisbergen Garth Tander |
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.953 | 0.118 |
5 | 22 | James Courtney Jack Perkins |
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.979 | 0.143 |
6 | 14 | Tim Slade Ash Walsh |
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.028 | 0.193 |
7 | 99 | Anton De Pasquale Will Brown |
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.029 | 0.194 |
8 | 55 | Chaz Mostert James Moffat |
Ford Mustang GT | 1'08.048 | 0.212 |
9 | 17 | Scott McLaughlin Alexandre Prémat |
Ford Mustang GT | 1'08.075 | 0.239 |
10 | 5 | Lee Holdsworth Thomas Randle |
Ford Mustang GT | 1'08.131 | 0.295 |
11 | 6 | Cameron Waters Michael Caruso |
Ford Mustang GT | 1'08.166 | 0.330 |
12 | 2 | Scott Pye Warren Luff |
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.238 | 0.403 |
13 | 7 | Andre Heimgartner Bryce Fullwood |
Nissan Altima | 1'08.266 | 0.430 |
14 | 9 | David Reynolds Luke Youlden |
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.268 | 0.432 |
15 | 23 | Will Davison Alex Davison |
Ford Mustang GT | 1'08.321 | 0.485 |
16 | 34 | James Golding Richard Muscat |
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.415 | 0.580 |
17 | 18 | Mark Winterbottom Steven Richards |
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.440 | 0.605 |
18 | 33 | Richie Stanaway Chris Pither |
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.458 | 0.622 |
19 | 3 | Garry Jacobson Dean Fiore |
Nissan Altima | 1'08.508 | 0.673 |
20 | 35 | Todd Hazelwood Jack Smith |
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.601 | 0.765 |
21 | 8 | Nick Percat Tim Blanchard |
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.613 | 0.778 |
22 | 56 | Brodie Kostecki Jake Kostecki |
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.714 | 0.878 |
23 | 21 | Macauley Jones Dean Canto |
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.820 | 0.984 |
24 | 19 | Jack Le Brocq Jonathon Webb |
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.845 | 1.009 |
25 | 78 | Simona de Silvestro Alex Rullo |
Nissan Altima | 1'08.934 | 1.098 |
View full results |
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Top Comments
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.