Tasmania Supercars: Whincup tops first practice by 0.01s

In the first session since the pre-round parity changes, Red Bull Holden driver Whincup was a constant near the top of the time sheets.

He first went quickest inside the first 10 minutes with a 51.086s, before being displaced by teammate Shane van Gisbergen's 50.973s at the 15-minute mark.

Both Red Bull drivers improved as the final third of the session kicked off, Whincup briefly going quickest with a 50.957s before van Gisbergen hit back with a 50.854s.

In the closing seconds it looked as if they would both be trumped by Tickford driver Mostert, who put his Mustang on top with a 50.775s.

However Whincup had the last laugh, a 50.756s right on the flag leaving him on top.

“The car is okay, it’s reasonable, but it’s not as nice as we’d like," he said.

"We’ll do a bit of work between P1 and P2 to try and improve it."

“I think everyone has a bit of a step to be made. The track is quite quick, a couple of tenths off the practice tyres. I think on green tyres the record could be under threat.”

Mostert and van Gisbergen were next, with points leader Scott McLaughlin battling a problem with his shift lights on the way to fourth.

David Reynolds was fifth ahead of Mustang drivers Lee Holdsworth and Will Davison, followed by Scott Pye, and Fabian Coulthard, who made sure five of the six Mustangs were in the Top 10 with the ninth-best time.

Anton De Pasquale was 10th, Rick Kelly the best Nissan in 11th, while Cam Waters was the slowest Mustang in 12th.

FP1 results:

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	50.7564
2	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Mustang GT	50.7755	0.0191
3	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	50.8547	0.0983
4	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Mustang GT	50.9504	0.1940
5	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore ZB	51.0792	0.3228
6	5	Lee Holdsworth	Ford Mustang GT	51.1156	0.3592
7	23	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	51.1186	0.3622
8	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	51.1402	0.3838
9	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Mustang GT	51.1580	0.4016
10	99	Anton De Pasquale	Holden Commodore ZB	51.1596	0.4032
11	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima L33	51.1737	0.4173
12	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	51.1878	0.4314
13	22	James Courtney	Holden Commodore ZB	51.1933	0.4369
14	18	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	51.1988	0.4424
15	4	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	51.2710	0.5146
16	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore ZB	51.2799	0.5235
17	7	Andre Heimgartner	Nissan Altima L33	51.2862	0.5298
18	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	51.3228	0.5664
19	35	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	51.3982	0.6418
20	33	Richie Stanaway	Holden Commodore ZB	51.4160	0.6596
21	34	James Golding	Holden Commodore ZB	51.4657	0.7093
22	21	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	51.6004	0.8440
23	3	Garry Jacobson	Nissan Altima L33	51.6678	0.9114
24	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima L33	51.7261	0.9697
25	19	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	51.8209	1.0645