Photo: Supercars/Fox Sports

Scott McLaughlin survives scare to go quickest in practice five before qualifying

Scott McLaughlin will be buying a lottery ticket in Bathurst tonight after getting away with minor contact after spinning his DJR Team Penske Ford Mustang on a fast lap in practice.

The defending race champion broke the Tickford domination of practice so far this weekend while also posting the fastest lap of the last five sessions before qualifying next time out, a 2:04.3716 nearly a second away from the times posted in the same outing last year.

On a final quick run, McLaughlin locked his rear wheels and got loose heading into Forrest Elbow, tagging the inside wall and damaging the rear of the car though it seemed the mechanical damage was minor with the car limping back to the lane before the end of the hour-long session.

The pendulum kept swinging at the top of the order throughout the second half of the hour-long session, from Jamie Whincup who was able to get on top of the Triple Eight #888 car to jump to the top of the order from 20th to McLaughlin bolting on another set of green tyres to get back on top in the DJRTP #17.

Tickford Racing’s strong form continued to shine through as both Lee Holdsworth and Cam Waters got up into the top five while Bryce Fullwood beat his Walkinshaw Andretti United team-mate Chaz Mostert, slipping the #2 car up to second just behind McLaughlin on his second trip to Bathurst for the 1000.

With only a handful of minutes remaining, the cars rolled back out on to the track for their qualifying and shootout simulation laps, McLaughlin was on track to go even quicker until a mistake running up towards Forrest Elbow, tagging the inside wall and spinning the Mustang, causing minor damage to the rear suspension.

As McLaughlin returned to the lane, only a handful of cars kept pushing for faster laps but no one could topple the defending race champion, Fullwood taking a respectable second in the final practice ahead of Tickford’s Holdsworth and Waters, Triple Eight’s Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen, Mostert, the Team Sydney entry of Alex Davison, James Courtney’s Tickford entry and finally Scott Pye to round out the top ten for Team 18.

Only qualifying remains today at 1605 local time with rain threatening to change up the order heading in to the shootout tomorrow.