Sydney Supercars: McLaughlin fastest in second practice

While it was the DJR Team Penske driver that finished on top, he didn’t actually feature at the top of the times until the closing stages of the 45-minute session.

It was the Brad Jones Racing Holdens that led the way for most of the session, Nick Percat and Tim Slade jumping into first and second on the 10-minute mark, before Slade improved his time to a 1m29.662s with 10 minutes to go.

With a little under three minutes to go Fabian Coulthard made his move with a 1m29.547s, a time that was soon eclipsed by Craig Lowndes’s 1m29.423s.

McLaughlin then stole the show by taking on a set of greens and bashing out a 1m28.850s to go fastest.

“It is a bit eye-opening going four seconds quicker, it’s hard to get your brain around that,” he said.

“The first set of tyres I sort of buffed up a bit, and the next one was good. We’re on a roll, we’ve got to keep it going. The car is nice but we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

McLaughlin wasn’t the only late improver. A trio of Prodrive Fords made it a Blue Oval top four, Mark Winterbottom, Chaz Mostert, and Cam Waters slotting into second to fourth respectively.

Practice 1 pacesetter Michael Caruso ended up fifth, while Lowndes slipped back to sixth after being quickest with a little over a minute to go.

Slade and Coulthard dropped back to seventh and eighth, while Jamie Whincup improved on his last run to beat Rick Kelly to ninth.

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'28.8500
2	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'29.0065	0.1565
3	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'29.0393	0.1893
4	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'29.2395	0.3895
5	23	Michael Caruso	Nissan Altima	1'29.3544	0.5044
6	888	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore VF	1'29.4231	0.5731
7	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore VF	1'29.5022	0.6522
8	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Falcon FG/X	1'29.5478	0.6978
9	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore VF	1'29.5878	0.7378
10	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	1'29.6114	0.7614
11	7	Todd Kelly	Nissan Altima	1'29.6160	0.7660
12	19	Will Davison	Holden Commodore VF	1'29.6406	0.7906
13	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore VF	1'29.7442	0.8942
14	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore VF	1'29.7966	0.9466
15	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore VF	1'29.8573	1.0073
16	22	James Courtney	Holden Commodore VF	1'29.8800	1.0300
17	18	Lee Holdsworth	Holden Commodore VF	1'29.8817	1.0317
18	33	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore VF	1'29.8950	1.0450
19	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore VF	1'29.9398	1.0898
20	34	James Moffat	Holden Commodore VF	1'30.0901	1.2401
21	21	Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore VF	1'30.3785	1.5285
22	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	1'30.3805	1.5305
23	56	Jason Bright	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'30.5817	1.7317
24	3	Alex Davison	Holden Commodore VF	1'30.6786	1.8286
25	99	Dale Wood	Holden Commodore VF	1'30.8807	2.0307
26	62	Alex Rullo	Holden Commodore VF	1'30.9427	2.0927