Winton Supercars: McLaughlin fastest as weather improves

The DJR Team Penske driver jumped to the top with a 1m19.592s on good, but not green, tyres with 12 minutes to go. He returned for a run on greens at the end of the session, but bailed out of his final run when it was clear he wouldn’t improve.

Not that it mattered, the time good enough to stand for P1 anyway.

“It’s quite dirty on the track, but very quick,” said McLaughlin.

“It was weird. We picked up a bit of understeer on the greens. We’ll look at the tyre , study it, and try and use the greens right [in qualifying].”

Chaz Mostert did find a gain on the green tyre, dipping into the 19s on his final run with a 1m19.679s. Shane van Gisbergen made his own improvement several seconds later, putting his Triple Eight Commodore third with a 1m19.804s.

Last year’s Winton winner Tim Slade was next in line, narrowly missing out on a 19s lap with as 1m20.123s. Brad Jones Racing teammate slipped back to fifth after not improving on his final run, the same going for Mark Winterbottom and Michael Caruso.

Garth Tander was eighth quickest and best of the Garry Rogers Motorsport Commodores, with Fabian Coulthard and David Reynolds rounding out the Top 10.

Apart from van Gisbergen, it was an unspectacular session for Triple Eight. Craig Lowndes finished down in 23rd, while Jamie Whincup was 24th.

For Lowndes, the issue was a lack of balance – even when he bolted greens on at the end.

“We just can’t get the front and rear to match together,” said the newly-re-signed veteran. “We had a crack on a new tyre and that highlighted the issue, we hoped the new tyre would hide it but it didn’t.”

Shae Davies was the best of the three wildcard entries, putting his MW Motorsport Nissan in 21st position. James Golding, who was the standout of the wildcards yesterday, was 22nd after causing an early red flag with an off at Turn 6.

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'19.5923
2	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'19.6791	0.0868
3	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore VF	1'19.8043	0.2120
4	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore VF	1'20.1232	0.5309
5	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore VF	1'20.2034	0.6111
6	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'20.2459	0.6536
7	23	Michael Caruso	Nissan Altima	1'20.2540	0.6617
8	33	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore VF	1'20.3661	0.7738
9	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'20.4011	0.8088
10	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore VF	1'20.4337	0.8414
11	19	Will Davison	Holden Commodore VF	1'20.4785	0.8862
12	22	James Courtney	Holden Commodore VF	1'20.5018	0.9095
13	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore VF	1'20.5089	0.9166
14	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	1'20.5282	0.9359
15	7	Todd Kelly	Nissan Altima	1'20.5725	0.9802
16	56	Jason Bright	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'20.5902	0.9979
17	18	Lee Holdsworth	Holden Commodore VF	1'20.5918	0.9995
18	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'20.6533	1.0610
19	21	Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore VF	1'20.6678	1.0755
20	34	James Moffat	Holden Commodore VF	1'20.7866	1.1943
21	26	Shae Davies	Nissan Altima	1'20.8222	1.2299
22	31	James Golding	Holden Commodore VF	1'20.8527	1.2604
23	888	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore VF	1'20.9408	1.3485
24	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore VF	1'20.9752	1.3829
25	99	Dale Wood	Holden Commodore VF	1'21.1541	1.5618
26	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	1'21.1869	1.5946
27	4	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore VF	1'21.2199	1.6276
28	3	Taz Douglas	Holden Commodore VF	1'21.6461	2.0538
29	62	Alex Rullo	Holden Commodore VF	1'22.4282	2.8359