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Practice report

Bathurst 1000: McLaughlin lowers lap record, Whincup crashes

Scott McLaughlin set a new Mount Panorama benchmark in final pre-qualifying practice for the Bathurst 1000, as Jamie Whincup ended the session in the wall.

Scott McLaughlin, DJR Team Penske Ford

Scott McLaughlin, DJR Team Penske Ford

Dirk Klynsmith / Motorsport Images

Having lowered his own record from 2017 in practice yesterday, McLaughlin took another chunk out of the benchmark with an incredible 2m03.481s.

That put him almost three-tenths clear of his Thursday lap, and left him 0.5s ahead of the field heading into this afternoon's qualifying session.

"It was a full-on lap and then you get told on the radio the team wants you to go a bit faster in the first sector. It’s like ‘come on boys, give me something!’,” said McLaughlin.

“You’ve got to have some sort of feel in case it is dry for qualifying.

“I’m not sure if it’s going to be wet as well. I’m within my limit, I am being safe, but I’m hanging on to a point where a 3.4, it’s pretty fast across the top for anyone.

“It’s cool to be there, but I think there’s more in it yet.”

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While it was all good news for one outright contender, another ended up in the fence.

Whincup was caught out when Richie Stanaway spun in front of him heading into The Dipper, the #888 Holden ending up in the wall after narrowly avoiding the GRM car.

The seven-time series champion had been gearing up for a qualifying simulation, the crash leaving him down in 14th for the session.

"I saw Richie go in as I came over Skyline," Whincup explained.

"If you look at it on TV it all looks pretty flat there, but it’s massively downhill. I just tried to scrub off as much speed as I possibly could while going around him. Going around means you’re in the marbles as well.

"It hit the wall. Not massive, I’d had a lot worse, [but it] smashed the front-left corner.

"Rear has got the camber knocked off it, but hopefully it’s not transaxle or anything like that.

"I’m pretty confident we’ll be out for qualifying. I tried to give the boys as much info as I could so we can start preparing.

"It’s broken a front-upright, front wishbones, trailing arm. There’s no fluid anywhere so radiator looks intact.

"The front splitter is smashed across and it just kooks like a rear trailing arm at the back as well."

Stanaway's car was also left with reasonable damage from his impact.

Adding to the drama was a late off for the Walkinshaw Andretti United wildcard car, Alexander Rossi firing the Holden into the gravel at the first corner with four minutes to go.

Following a lengthy red flag for the Whincup/Stanaway clean up, officials elected to not restart the session after Rossi went off.

That left Andre Heimgartner in second, the Nissan driver becoming the fifth driver to join the so-called 'Threes Club' with a 2m03.985s.

Cam Waters continued his promising form with the third quickest time, with David Reynolds fourth despite having better laps twice cut short by red flags.

Qualifying, which will determine both who makes the Top 10 Shootout and positions 11-26, kicks off at 4pm local time.

Cla # Driver Car Laps Time Gap Interval km/h
1 17 New Zealand Scott McLaughlin
France Alexandre Prémat
Ford Mustang GT 14 2'03.4813     181.135
2 7 New Zealand Andre Heimgartner
Australia Bryce Fullwood
Nissan Altima 17 2'03.9853 0.5040 0.5040 180.398
3 6 Australia Cameron Waters
Australia Michael Caruso
Ford Mustang GT 16 2'04.0248 0.5435 0.0395 180.341
4 9 Australia David Reynolds
Australia Luke Youlden
Holden Commodore ZB 17 2'04.1919 0.7106 0.1671 180.098
5 12 New Zealand Fabian Coulthard
Australia Tony D'Alberto
Ford Mustang GT 16 2'04.2325 0.7512 0.0406 180.039
6 97 New Zealand Shane van Gisbergen
Australia Garth Tander
Holden Commodore ZB 19 2'04.2852 0.8039 0.0527 179.963
7 5 Australia Lee Holdsworth
Australia Thomas Randle
Ford Mustang GT 18 2'04.3370 0.8557 0.0518 179.888
8 2 Australia Scott Pye
Australia Warren Luff
Holden Commodore ZB 16 2'04.4820 1.0007 0.1450 179.678
9 99 Australia Anton De Pasquale
Australia Will Brown
Holden Commodore ZB 16 2'04.5004 1.0191 0.0184 179.652
10 34 Australia James Golding
Richard Muscat
Holden Commodore ZB 16 2'04.5240 1.0427 0.0236 179.618
11 18 Australia Mark Winterbottom
New Zealand Steven Richards
Holden Commodore ZB 16 2'04.6103 1.1290 0.0863 179.493
12 15 Australia Rick Kelly
Australia Dale Wood
Nissan Altima 14 2'04.6298 1.1485 0.0195 179.465
13 55 Australia Chaz Mostert
Australia James Moffat
Ford Mustang GT 15 2'04.7297 1.2484 0.0999 179.322
14 3 Australia Garry Jacobson
Australia Dean Fiore
Nissan Altima 17 2'04.7547 1.2734 0.0250 179.286
15 35 Australia Todd Hazelwood
United States Jack Smith
Holden Commodore ZB 14 2'04.8433 1.3620 0.0886 179.158
16 33 New Zealand Richie Stanaway
New Zealand Chris Pither
Holden Commodore ZB 13 2'04.8815 1.4002 0.0382 179.104
17 888 Australia Jamie Whincup
Australia Craig Lowndes
Holden Commodore ZB 14 2'04.9580 1.4767 0.0765 178.994
18 8 Australia Nick Percat
Australia Tim Blanchard
Holden Commodore ZB 14 2'05.0038 1.5225 0.0458 178.928
19 22 Australia James Courtney
Jack Perkins
Holden Commodore ZB 16 2'05.2185 1.7372 0.2147 178.622
20 23 Australia Will Davison
Australia Alex Davison
Ford Mustang GT 15 2'05.2555 1.7742 0.0370 178.569
21 78 Switzerland Simona de Silvestro
Australia Alex Rullo
Nissan Altima 16 2'05.2664 1.7851 0.0109 178.553
22 14 Australia Tim Slade Holden Commodore ZB 17 2'05.7105 2.2292 0.4441 177.923
23 56 Brodie Kostecki
Australia Jake Kostecki
Holden Commodore ZB 18 2'06.1389 2.6576 0.4284 177.318
24 21 Australia Macauley Jones
Australia Dean Canto
Holden Commodore ZB 14 2'06.2179 2.7366 0.0790 177.207
25 27 United States Alexander Rossi
James Hinchliffe
Holden Commodore ZB 13 2'06.3885 2.9072 0.1706 176.968
26 19 Australia Jack Le Brocq
Australia Jonathon Webb
Holden Commodore ZB 16 2'06.8144 3.3331 0.4259 176.374

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