Tasmania Supercars: Whincup fastest in frantic Practice 2
Jamie Whincup topped a frantic second practice session at Symmons Plains, as the Q1/Q2 qualifying split was set by a flurry of late times.
Jamie Whincup, Triple Eight Race Engineering Holden
Edge Photographics
Whincup made a fast start to the session, firing to the top with a 50.996s in the third minute, right before Simona de Silvestro sparked a red flag by running off at the hairpin.
When the session went green again, Practice 1 pacesetter Shane van Gisbergen got straight down to business with a 50.970s to go fastest.
On the quarter-hour mark Scott McLaughlin showed his hand for the first time, a 50.666s lowering the practice lap record and putting the Penske Ford driver's Q2 spot beyond doubt after he was just ninth fastest in Practice 1.
It took until the final 10 minutes, following a second red flag when Nick Percat beached himself at the hairpin, for McLaughlin's time to be beaten. And it was reigning champion Whincup that did the damage, going quickest with a 50.658s before lowering the record again and securing P1 with a 50.560s.
David Reynolds made up for a poor Practice 1 by booking a Q2 spot with a 50.633s, set with four minutes to go. Both Reynolds and Craig Lowndes jumped McLaughlin during the final 10 minute flurry, the Kiwi ending up fourth despite making a small gain on his final run.
Those final 10 minutes effectively shaped Q1 and Q2 for tomorrow's qualifying, Practice 1 times rendered irrelevant by a host of improvements.
While van Gisbergen would have technically survived on his Practice 1 time, he did go marginally quicker to slot into fifth. Fabian Coulthard dropped back to sixth during the final run, while Mark Winterbottom led Walkinshaw Andretti United pair Scott Pye and James Courtney.
Tim Slade ended up on the bubble in 10th, while Michael Caruso was the one driver to fall out of the Top 10 between sessions, his automatic spot in Q2 effectively taken by Reynolds.
Simona de Silvestro also only narrowly missed out on an automatic Q2 berth, falling just 0.03s short of Slade.
Apart from Winterbottom, Tickford's star driver line-up will have to go the long way ins qualifying tomorrow; Cam Waters was 12th quickest, Chaz Mostert 20th, and Richie Stanaway 23rd.
Cla | # | Driver | Car | Time | Gap | Interval |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Jamie Whincup | Holden Commodore ZB | 50.5609 | ||
2 | 9 | David Reynolds | Holden Commodore ZB | 50.6331 | 0.0722 | 0.0722 |
3 | 888 | Craig Lowndes | Holden Commodore ZB | 50.6491 | 0.0882 | 0.0160 |
4 | 17 | Scott McLaughlin | Ford Falcon FG X | 50.6571 | 0.0962 | 0.0080 |
5 | 97 | Shane van Gisbergen | Holden Commodore ZB | 50.7199 | 0.1590 | 0.0628 |
6 | 12 | Fabian Coulthard | Ford Falcon FG X | 50.7528 | 0.1919 | 0.0329 |
7 | 5 | Mark Winterbottom | Ford Falcon FG X | 50.7556 | 0.1947 | 0.0028 |
8 | 25 | James Courtney | Holden Commodore ZB | 50.7786 | 0.2177 | 0.0230 |
9 | 2 | Scott Pye | Holden Commodore ZB | 50.8316 | 0.2707 | 0.0530 |
10 | 14 | Tim Slade | Holden Commodore ZB | 50.8545 | 0.2936 | 0.0229 |
11 | 78 | Simona de Silvestro | Nissan Altima | 50.8848 | 0.3239 | 0.0303 |
12 | 6 | Cameron Waters | Ford Falcon FG X | 50.8994 | 0.3385 | 0.0146 |
13 | 33 | Garth Tander | Holden Commodore ZB | 50.9035 | 0.3426 | 0.0041 |
14 | 23 | Michael Caruso | Nissan Altima | 50.9174 | 0.3565 | 0.0139 |
15 | 19 | Jack Le Brocq | Holden Commodore ZB | 50.9305 | 0.3696 | 0.0131 |
16 | 15 | Rick Kelly | Nissan Altima | 50.9550 | 0.3941 | 0.0245 |
17 | 18 | Lee Holdsworth | Holden Commodore ZB | 50.9726 | 0.4117 | 0.0176 |
18 | 99 | Anton de Pasquale | Holden Commodore ZB | 51.0000 | 0.4391 | 0.0274 |
19 | 230 | Will Davison | Ford Falcon FG X | 51.0185 | 0.4576 | 0.0185 |
20 | 55 | Chaz Mostert | Ford Falcon FG X | 51.0228 | 0.4619 | 0.0043 |
21 | 7 | Andre Heimgartner | Nissan Altima | 51.0324 | 0.4715 | 0.0096 |
22 | 8 | Nick Percat | Holden Commodore ZB | 51.0687 | 0.5078 | 0.0363 |
23 | 56 | Richie Stanaway | Ford Falcon FG X | 51.1493 | 0.5884 | 0.0806 |
24 | 35 | Todd Hazelwood | Ford Falcon FG X | 51.1594 | 0.5985 | 0.0101 |
25 | 34 | James Golding | Holden Commodore ZB | 51.2494 | 0.6885 | 0.0900 |
26 | 21 | Tim Blanchard | Holden Commodore ZB | 51.4314 | 0.8705 | 0.1820 |
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