Bathurst 1000: Hinchcliffe hits the wall as practice continues
IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe got his first taste of the Mount Panorama concrete in the sixth practice session for the 2019 Bathurst 1000.
Hinchcliffe backed the Walkinshaw Andretti United Holden into the wall at The Cutting with five minutes to go, forcing the wildcard entry out of the remainder of the session.
It was the second mishap for the NAPA-backed car, after Alex Rossi beached himself at Hell Corner yesterday.
The damage from the Hinchcliffe shunt appears to be mostly cosmetic, the car likely to return for the day's second half-hour practice session at 12:10pm.
"I got into the wall a little bit in The Cutting just trying to find the limit," explained Hinchcliffe.
"I’m actually getting a lot more comfortable in the car, Alex and I both. Every night you get to sleep on it, let it sit and marinate overnight. You come back and feel a lot more at home and comfortable in the car.
"[I'm] just starting to push in places we hadn’t felt comfortable pushing before this point and it obviously just got away from me there and tagged the wall.
"I hate to lose the track time for both of us, but I think it’s relatively cosmetic stuff and we’ll get it fixed up for this afternoon."
There were no Hollywood lap times from the opening hit-out, crews mostly focussed on race runs and driver change practice.
Will and Alex Davison led the way with a 2m04.754s, edging Fabian Coulthard/Tony D'Alberto by 0.005s.
Tim Slade was third quickest after running a set of green tyres, followed by Brad Jones Racing teammate Nick Percat and Alex Premat in the #17 Penske Ford.
There were more issues for the #6 Tickford Mustang, a stuck throttle forcing a lengthy stint in the pits in the first third of the session.
That follows a sensor drama in qualifying yesterday that almost cost Cam Waters a shot at the Top 10 Shootout.
He and Michael Caruso finished today's session in 17th after finally getting on track.
| Cla | # | Driver | Car | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | km/h | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 23 |  Will Davison Alex Davison | Ford Mustang GT | 12 | 2'04.7544 | 179.286 | |||
| 2 | 12 |  Fabian Coulthard Tony D'Alberto | Ford Mustang GT | 11 | 2'04.7595 | 0.0051 | 0.0051 | 179.279 | |
| 3 | 14 | Tim Slade | Holden Commodore ZB | 11 | 2'04.9764 | 0.2220 | 0.2169 | 178.968 | |
| 4 | 8 | Nick Percat Tim Blanchard | Holden Commodore ZB | 7 | 2'05.2599 | 0.5055 | 0.2835 | 178.563 | |
| 5 | 17 | Scott McLaughlin  Alexandre Prémat | Ford Mustang GT | 13 | 2'05.2806 | 0.5262 | 0.0207 | 178.533 | |
| 6 | 97 | Shane van Gisbergen Garth Tander | Holden Commodore ZB | 12 | 2'05.3015 | 0.5471 | 0.0209 | 178.503 | |
| 7 | 55 | Chaz Mostert James Moffat | Ford Mustang GT | 12 | 2'05.3061 | 0.5517 | 0.0046 | 178.497 | |
| 8 | 35 | Todd Hazelwood  Jack Smith | Holden Commodore ZB | 11 | 2'05.4128 | 0.6584 | 0.1067 | 178.345 | |
| 9 | 9 | David Reynolds Luke Youlden | Holden Commodore ZB | 12 | 2'05.5985 | 0.8441 | 0.1857 | 178.081 | |
| 10 | 18 | Mark Winterbottom Steven Richards | Holden Commodore ZB | 11 | 2'05.8142 | 1.0598 | 0.2157 | 177.776 | |
| 11 | 5 | Lee Holdsworth Thomas Randle | Ford Mustang GT | 12 | 2'05.8388 | 1.0844 | 0.0246 | 177.741 | |
| 12 | 99 | Anton De Pasquale Will Brown | Holden Commodore ZB | 13 | 2'05.9672 | 1.2128 | 0.1284 | 177.560 | |
| 13 | 3 | Garry Jacobson Dean Fiore | Nissan Altima | 11 | 2'06.0172 | 1.2628 | 0.050 | 177.490 | |
| 14 | 22 | James Courtney Jack Perkins | Holden Commodore ZB | 13 | 2'06.0758 | 1.3214 | 0.0586 | 177.407 | |
| 15 | 7 | Andre Heimgartner Bryce Fullwood | Nissan Altima | 11 | 2'06.0816 | 1.3272 | 0.0058 | 177.399 | |
| 16 | 21 | Macauley Jones Dean Canto | Holden Commodore ZB | 11 | 2'06.1618 | 1.4074 | 0.0802 | 177.286 | |
| 17 | 6 | Cameron Waters Michael Caruso | Ford Mustang GT | 10 | 2'06.1943 | 1.4399 | 0.0325 | 177.240 | |
| 18 | 19 | Jack Le Brocq Jonathon Webb | Holden Commodore ZB | 11 | 2'06.2664 | 1.5120 | 0.0721 | 177.139 | |
| 19 | 15 | Rick Kelly Dale Wood | Nissan Altima | 12 | 2'06.3265 | 1.5721 | 0.0601 | 177.055 | |
| 20 | 888 | Jamie Whincup Craig Lowndes | Holden Commodore ZB | 11 | 2'06.3437 | 1.5893 | 0.0172 | 177.031 | |
| 21 | 56 | Brodie Kostecki Jake Kostecki | Holden Commodore ZB | 12 | 2'06.4342 | 1.6798 | 0.0905 | 176.904 | |
| 22 | 2 | Scott Pye Warren Luff | Holden Commodore ZB | 12 | 2'06.4396 | 1.6852 | 0.0054 | 176.897 | |
| 23 | 33 | Richie Stanaway Chris Pither | Holden Commodore ZB | 12 | 2'07.1617 | 2.4073 | 0.7221 | 175.892 | |
| 24 | 78 |  Simona de Silvestro Alex Rullo | Nissan Altima | 12 | 2'07.2711 | 2.5167 | 0.1094 | 175.741 | |
| 25 | 34 | James Golding Richard Muscat | Holden Commodore ZB | 12 | 2'07.3152 | 2.5608 | 0.0441 | 175.680 | |
| 26 | 27 | Alexander Rossi  James Hinchcliffe | Holden Commodore ZB | 7 | 2'08.0356 | 3.2812 | 0.7204 | 174.692 |
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