Darwin Supercars: McLaughlin edges Kelly in Practice 2

The fast times book-ended the sessions, Kelly making the most of the Michelin rubber left behind from the Carrera Cup session to bang out a 1m06.199s first time out.

That time proved unbeatable until the final couple of minutes, when McLaughlin took on a set of greens and went for a qualifying simulation.

"We were one of the only ones who got a green gain from what we saw, so that was good," said McLaughlin. "It's P1, which is where we want to be.

"We've got to take [qualifying] as it comes. I think we've got a good balance and a good idea from last year, which is nice. We'll work on it overnight and see where we're at."

There was no late qualifying sim for Practice 1 pacesetter Kelly, who was instead focussed on race runs after his early time.

"We're just trying to focus a bit more on the race runs, to try and make sure that the car is strong from that point of view," he said.

"We did two long race runs, which filled the whole session there. [I'm] keen to debrief on that and work out how to go a bit faster in the bit that counts."

Jamie Whincup was third quickest, his time coming with four minutes to go after his Triple Eight Commodore required a change of front splitter midway through thanks to excessive flexing at Turn 1.

Michael Caruso backed up his Practice 1 pace with the fourth quickest time right at the flag, while Craig Lowndes was another late improver with the fifth quickest time, which knocked Shane van Gisbergen back to sixth.

David Reynolds was seventh quickest, Fabian Coulthard eighth, and Andre Heimgartner and Tim Blanchard rounding out the Top 10.

For the second time today there was no Tickford Racing cars in the Top 10, Cam Waters the best of the team's four cars in 12th. Mark Winterbottom and Chaz Mostert could manage just 17th and 18th respectively, while Richie Stanaway was 20th.

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG X	1'06.1587
2	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	1'06.1999	0.0412
3	1	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.3219	0.1632
4	23	Michael Caruso	Nissan Altima	1'06.3725	0.2138
5	888	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.4716	0.3129
6	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.4973	0.3386
7	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.5570	0.3983
8	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Falcon FG X	1'06.5895	0.4308
9	7	Andre Heimgartner	Nissan Altima	1'06.6016	0.4429
10	21	Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.6064	0.4477
11	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.6442	0.4855
12	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG X	1'06.6586	0.4999
13	99	Anton de Pasquale	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.7143	0.5556
14	25	James Courtney	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.7208	0.5621
15	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	1'06.7316	0.5729
16	35	Todd Hazelwood	Ford Falcon FG X	1'06.7541	0.5954
17	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG X	1'06.7941	0.6354
18	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG X	1'06.7986	0.6399
19	230	Will Davison	Ford Falcon FG X	1'06.8713	0.7126
20	56	Richie Stanaway	Ford Falcon FG X	1'06.8785	0.7198
21	33	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.9118	0.7531
22	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	1'06.9609	0.8022
23	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	1'07.0490	0.8903
24	19	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	1'07.0732	0.9145
25	400	Lee Holdsworth	Holden Commodore ZB	1'07.3474	1.1887
26	34	James Golding	Holden Commodore ZB	1'07.4138	1.2551
27	4	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	1'07.5537	1.3950