Bathurst 1000: McLaughlin crashes after going fastest

The DJR Team Penske ace was a consistent figure at the top of the times, leading the way early with a mid-2m05s before being shuffled down as the likes of Cam Waters and Jamie Whincup improved.

Heading into the final third of the session McLaughlin went quickest again, a 2m04.371s moving him clear of Whincup.

He then looked to go quicker on his final run, going purple in the first sector before locking his rears and hitting the wall in the way into the Elbow.

But while his session ended with his car slowly crabbing its way down Conrod Straight, McLaiughlin still hung on to top spot, nobody able to beat that earlier time.

"I just ballsed up the downshift," said McLaughlin.

"You're using the engine braking so much that as soon as you miss one, you're out of the groove. That's all I did. I tried to half recover it, but as soon as it plucked the bottom arm out I was a bit of a passenger.

"The car is super racey. It felt mega. I was six-tenths up going into that part of the track and I've got a 4.4s on the dash..."

Bryce Fullwood ended up an impressive second, just days after signing a new contract with Walkinshaw Andretti United, followed by Tickford pair Lee Holdsworth and Cam Waters.

Whincup slipped back to fifth after not improving at the end, with his teammate Shane van Gisbergen sixth, Chaz Mostert seventh and Alex Davison the surprise of the session in eighth in his Team Sydney Holden.

Next up is qualifying, which will determine who makes the Top 10 Shootout and locks in grid positions 11-25.

Cla	#	Driver	Time	Gap	Interval
1	17	Scott McLaughlin Tim Slade	2'04.371
2	2	Bryce Fullwood Kurt Kostecki	2'04.484	0.113	0.113
3	5	Lee Holdsworth Michael Caruso	2'04.529	0.158	0.045
4	6	Cameron Waters Will Davison	2'04.543	0.172	0.013
5	88	Jamie Whincup Craig Lowndes	2'04.628	0.256	0.084
6	97	Shane van Gisbergen Garth Tander	2'04.679	0.307	0.051
7	25	Chaz Mostert Warren Luff	2'04.758	0.386	0.079
8	19	Alex Davison Jonathon Webb	2'04.807	0.435	0.049
9	44	James Courtney Broc Feeney	2'04.854	0.482	0.046
10	20	Scott Pye Dean Fiore	2'04.930	0.559	0.076
11	8	Nick Percat Thomas Randle	2'04.943	0.572	0.012
12	55	Jack Le Brocq James Moffat	2'05.159	0.787	0.215
13	99	Anton De Pasquale Brodie Kostecki	2'05.231	0.859	0.072
14	7	Andre Heimgartner Dylan O'Keeffe	2'05.291	0.919	0.060
15	14	Todd Hazelwood Jordan Boys	2'05.432	1.060	0.141
16	12	Fabian Coulthard Tony D'Alberto	2'05.487	1.116	0.055
17	15	Rick Kelly Dale Wood	2'05.561	1.190	0.074
18	34	Jake Kostecki Zane Goddard	2'05.597	1.225	0.035
19	18	Mark Winterbottom James Golding	2'05.819	1.447	0.221
20	9	David Reynolds Will Brown	2'05.870	1.498	0.051
21	3	Macauley Jones Tim Blanchard	2'06.317	1.945	0.447
22	35	Garry Jacobson David Russell	2'06.591	2.220	0.274
23	4	Jack Smith Jack Perkins	2'06.763	2.392	0.172
24	22	Chris Pither Steven Owen	2'06.806	2.434	0.042
25	40	Tyler Everingham Jayden Ojeda	2'06.909	2.537	0.103
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