Adelaide 500: Whincup tops practice, McLaughlin shunts

It was all Triple Eight in the first part of the session, Shane van Gisbergen leading the way early on with a 1m21.240s before Craig Lowndes and Whincup both dipped under the 1m21s mark with a 1m20.924s and a 1m20.833s respectively.

Whincup's time stayed on top until the final three minutes when Cam Waters and McLaughlin both improved. The reigning champion was able to respond, though, re-claiming P1 with a 1m20.187s on his final run.

"It's a good way to start the year," said Whincup.

"We've done some pretty big work over the break on the mechanical side of things, so we're in a good place to start the weekend.

"We just kept it calm, put a new set of tyres on, and the car felt good."

Mark Winterbottom ended up second fastest, making up 16 spots at the flag with a 1m20.376s to split title favourites Whincup and McLaughlin.

McLaughlin, meanwhile, had a troubled run to third fastest thanks to an excursion into the Turn 4 wall midway through the session. That led to a lengthy stint in the garage, before the Kiwi got going again with 10 minutes to run and blasted to the top end of the times with a 1m20.564s.

"We bowled around on an old tyre so it was hard to get a feel, and the track is quite slippery," said McLaughlin.

"I felt like we were very high all session. We were just trying to get a bit more feel in the rear. I feel like the tyre grip was definitely hurting us at [the] point [of the crash].

"When we fixed that up, it was great."

Shane van Gisbergen finished up fourth fastest, despite going purple in the first two sectors on his final run. In the end a small moment through Turn 8 was enough to cost him top spot.

Will Davison was the surprise of the session, going fifth quickest in the 23Red Racing Ford to edge out Waters by 0.04s.

James Courtney was the leading Walkinshaw Holden in seventh, ahead of Tim Slade, Lowndes, and Scott Pye.

Elsewhere in the field Richie Stanaway was the best of the rookies, going 16th fastest to end up third-best of the Tickford Fords. Teammate Chaz Mostert failed to make any late gains, finishing up down in 19th.

Nissan endured a difficult start to the new season as well, Michael Caruso the best of the Altimas in 13th.

Pos	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Interval
1	1	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	1'20.1622
2	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG X	1'20.3768	0.2146	0.2146
3	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG X	1'20.5649	0.4027	0.1881
4	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	1'20.6734	0.5112	0.1085
5	230	Will Davison	Ford Falcon FG X	1'20.6995	0.5373	0.0261
6	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG X	1'20.7375	0.5753	0.0380
7	25	James Courtney	Holden Commodore ZB	1'20.8376	0.6754	0.1001
8	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore ZB	1'20.9106	0.7484	0.0730
9	888	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore ZB	1'20.9241	0.7619	0.0135
10	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	1'20.9696	0.8074	0.0455
11	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	1'21.0069	0.8447	0.0373
12	18	Lee Holdsworth	Holden Commodore ZB	1'21.1047	0.9425	0.0978
13	23	Michael Caruso	Nissan Altima	1'21.1238	0.9616	0.0191
14	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	1'21.1599	0.9977	0.0361
15	7	Andre Heimgartner	Nissan Altima	1'21.1746	1.0124	0.0147
16	56	Richie Stanaway	Ford Falcon FG X	1'21.2145	1.0523	0.0399
17	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Falcon FG X	1'21.2512	1.0890	0.0367
18	33	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore ZB	1'21.3131	1.1509	0.0619
19	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG X	1'21.3505	1.1883	0.0374
20	99	Anton de Pasquale	Holden Commodore ZB	1'21.5815	1.4193	0.2310
21	21	Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore ZB	1'21.7646	1.6024	0.1831
22	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore ZB	1'21.8386	1.6764	0.0740
23	35	Todd Hazelwood	Ford Falcon FG X	1'21.8715	1.7093	0.0329
24	19	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	1'22.4461	2.2839	0.5746
25	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	1'22.8772	2.7150	0.4311
26	34	James Golding	Holden Commodore ZB	1'22.9076	2.7454	0.0304