Winton Supercars: Percat gaps the field in frantic second practice

The Brad Jones Racing driver came out on top of a wild session, which saw a 90-second shootout as crews switched to slick tyres, to the tune of 1.1 seconds.

Penske Ford driver Scott McLaughlin was at or the near the top the whole way through to finish second quickest, while Erebus driver David Reynolds was a late improver to beat Fabian Coulthard to third spot.

Unlike this morning’s session where conditions worsened towards the end, it was a case of constant improvement throughout the second 45-minute hit-out.

Even at the beginning of the sessions times were well down on this morning, Scott McLaughlin sneaking straight into the 1m36s with his first run before settling on a 1m36.651s.

Jamie Whincup took over at the top on seven minutes with a 1m36.547s, before van Gisbergen lowered the benchmark again with a 1m35.244s.

But the quarter hour mark the times has dipped into the 1m34s, Chaz Mostert first with a 1m34.997s before McLaughlin re-claimed top spot with a 1m34.551s.

A short break to retrieve Macauley Jones’s stranded Commodore allowed the track conditions to get even better, and when the session was restarted with 26 minutes to go the times started to tumble.

McLaughlin made the first big gain, diving into the 33s with a 1m33.539s. Caruso then got involved with a 1m33.094s, right before Nissan wildcard driver Shae Davies sparked a second red with an off at Turn 3.

The order changed again during the four-minute sprint between the restart with 16 minutes to go and the next red flag (this time due to Tim Blanchard beaching his BJR Commodore). McLaughlin launched back on top with a 1m32.858s, Caruso following him into the 32s, but falling 0.08s short of the Penske Ford.

The final five-minute run to the flag saw a mad scramble on dry tyres, which majorly shook up the order. While Caruso stuck with the wets, and went temporarily quickest with a 1m31.802s, it didn’t last long. Jason Bright was first to go quickest on the slick, before Fabian Coulthard looked to have stolen it with a 1m30.162s.

McLaughlin, having made a late switch to slicks, then fired back to the top with a 1m29.205s – only to be beaten at the flag by Percat’s stunning 1m28.105s.

That pushed McLaughlin back to second, while Reynolds joined him in the 29s with a 1m29.522s

Coulthard was shuffled back to fourth, ahead of late improvers Cam Waters and James Courtney.

Caruso was shuffled back to seventh, ahead of Whincup, Tim Slade, and Lee Holdsworth.

Mostert and van Gisbergen, meanwhile, ended up back in 13th and 14th having not made the best of the almost dry running at the end.

The Kiwi did have a run-in with James Moffat at the end, the GRM driver sliding up the inside of van Gisbergen and making contact as they squabbled over track position.

James Golding was the best of the wildcard entries, going 21st quickest in the GRM Commodore.

Results:

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore VF	1'28.1050
2	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'29.2059	1.1009
3	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore VF	1'29.5228	1.4178
4	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'30.1627	2.0577
5	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'30.2130	2.1080
6	22	James Courtney	Holden Commodore VF	1'30.4084	2.3034
7	23	Michael Caruso	Nissan Altima	1'30.4900	2.3850
8	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore VF	1'30.7129	2.6079
9	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore VF	1'30.7624	2.6574
10	18	Lee Holdsworth	Holden Commodore VF	1'31.0307	2.9257
11	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'31.0321	2.9271
12	56	Jason Bright	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'31.2089	3.1039
13	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'31.2273	3.1223
14	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore VF	1'31.3936	3.2886
15	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	1'31.4153	3.3103
16	33	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore VF	1'31.5477	3.4427
17	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore VF	1'31.8147	3.7097
18	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	1'31.8158	3.7108
19	99	Dale Wood	Holden Commodore VF	1'32.2627	4.1577
20	34	James Moffat	Holden Commodore VF	1'32.5713	4.4663
21	31	James Golding	Holden Commodore VF	1'32.6114	4.5064
22	888	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore VF	1'32.7872	4.6822
23	21	Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore VF	1'32.8801	4.7751
24	26	Shae Davies	Nissan Altima	1'33.4211	5.3161
25	62	Alex Rullo	Holden Commodore VF	1'33.7431	5.6381
26	4	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore VF	1'33.7528	5.6478
27	3	Taz Douglas	Holden Commodore VF	1'34.8843	6.7793
28	19	Will Davison	Holden Commodore VF	1'35.6641	7.5591
29	7	Todd Kelly	Nissan Altima	1'35.9196	7.8146