Jamie Whincup heads up Friday practice in Supercars finale
The Supercars Championship practice at the Newcastle Street Circuit has seen Jamie Whincup emerge from Friday as the fastest driver after a fast, late lap put the Triple Eight driver to the top of the timesheets.
Making use of the cooler track temperatures late in the afternoon, Whincup was able to edge his rivals as the top four were separated by under a tenth of a second, all bar one driver coming within one second of the fastest time of the session.
It was a strong session for Triple Eight as Shane van Gisbergen was the fastest driver early on in the afternoon’s closing practice session, going under the quickest practice one time on his first flying laps ahead of Triple Eight team-mate Whincup.
The day’s first stoppage came courtesy of David Reynolds who went down the Turn 1 escape road, trying to make what seemed like a thousand-point turn in the Erebus Motorsport car before the red flag was thrown out to give him more time to sort it out.
Nearly nothing split the top two of van Gisbergen and champion-elect Scott McLaughlin near the end of the session, the DJR Team Penske driver trailing the Triple Eight car by just 0.006 of a second.
Cam Waters was able to spoil the Kiwi party on his final lap, going quickest in the Tickford Racing Mustang though under half a tenth faster than van Gisbergen’s best time. Whincup was able to fire back for the Holden camp, going just 0.0057 below Waters’ time to take the fastest lap of the session.
McLaughlin was on top in opening practice after posting his quickest time at the end of the session, just over one-hundredth of a second faster than the Erebus entry of David Reynolds in second.
The session-topping time of 1:10.6092 came in the final runs with only the top five drivers going below the 1:11 marker. Whincup put the #88 Triple Eight car into third, just in front of Todd Hazelwood’s Matt Stone Racing Holden with Mark Winterbottom fifth in the Team 18 machine.
Despite being fastest early on and leading for a majority of the 30 minute session, Shane van Gisbergen finished up in sixth for Triple Eight, making it all Triple Eight built cars from position three to six.
The only hiccup in the session came from Nick Percat sticking the Brad Jones Racing #8 Commodore into the Turn 7 tyre wall, running in too hot after the car became unloaded at the previous corner. He was able to back out and continue with the session remaining green until the end.
Qualifying will kick off at 1050 local time tomorrow, building up to the Top Ten Shootout at 1315 followed by the 95 lap race, getting underway at 1615.
