Gold Coast 600: Whincup breaks practice lap record

The 30-minute session boiled down to a six-minute sprint right at the death, following a late red flag called after James Moffat hit the Turn 11 wall.

To that point Fabian Coulthard had been quickest with a 1m10.533s – but that time didn’t last long when the session went green.

It was Reynolds who went fastest first with a 1m10.330s, before Whincup blasted his way to the top with a 1m09.917s. It was the first time ever under the 1m10s mark, lowering Reynolds’ existing unofficial lap record of 1m10.048s.

“The car is good,” said the Triple Eight driver.

“It feels comfortable to drive, and we pushed hard there on good tyres and extracted the most out of it. I like this place, so it’s good to go quick.”

Chaz Mostert wound up second quickest, making up 11 spots on his final run with a 1m10.103s. Reynolds dropped back to third, ahead of Scott McLaughlin, who also improved on his final run.

Shane van Gisbergen did likewise to go fifth quickest, while Coulthard dropped back to sixth with that time he set right before Moffat went into the wall.

Mark Winterbottom was seventh quickest, ahead of teammate Cam Waters and Nissan driver Todd Kelly.

Craig Lowndes rounded out the Top 10.

For Moffat, his crash was a continuation of a poor run of luck. His Bathurst charge ended in a pair of crashes a little under a fortnight ago, the second of which was bad enough to require a chassis switch for the Gold Coast.

The replacement chassis, usually co-driver Richard Muscat’s Super2 car, will now need to be fixed as well after ending up in the tyre wall on the outside of Turn 11.

“I was probably pushing too hard and made a mistake,” said Moffat. “Silly. I don’t know how the car will be. It got the tyres, which hopeful will mean it’s not too bad. But it was quite a head-on impact. I shouldn’t be doing stuff like that, it’s just dumb.”

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	88	Jamie Whincup    Paul Dumbrell	Holden Commodore VF	1'09.9179
2	55	Steven Owen    Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'10.1037	0.1858
3	9	David Reynolds  Luke Youlden	Holden Commodore VF	1'10.3301	0.4122
4	17	Alexandre Prémat    Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'10.3536	0.4357
5	97	Shane van Gisbergen    Matt Campbell	Holden Commodore VF	1'10.3588	0.4409
6	12	Tony D'Alberto    Fabian Coulthard	Ford Falcon FG/X	1'10.5337	0.6158
7	5	Mark Winterbottom    Dean Canto	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'10.5554	0.6375
8	6	Richie Stanaway    Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'10.5676	0.6497
9	7	Todd Kelly    Jack Le Brocq	Nissan Altima	1'10.6728	0.7549
10	888	Steven Richards    Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore VF	1'10.6817	0.7638
11	22	James Courtney    Jack Perkins	Holden Commodore VF	1'10.6836	0.7657
12	8	Nick Percat    Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore VF	1'10.7624	0.8445
13	2	Warren Luff    Scott Pye	Holden Commodore VF	1'10.7708	0.8529
14	14	Tim Slade    Andre Heimgartner	Holden Commodore VF	1'10.7817	0.8638
15	19	Jonathon Webb    Will Davison	Holden Commodore VF	1'10.9151	0.9972
16	23	Michael Caruso    Dean Fiore	Nissan Altima	1'10.9460	1.0281
17	18	Lee Holdsworth    Karl Reindler	Holden Commodore VF	1'10.9650	1.0471
18	15	Rick Kelly    David Wall	Nissan Altima	1'11.0075	1.0896
19	34	James Moffat    Richard Muscat	Holden Commodore VF	1'11.1074	1.1895
20	33	Garth Tander    James Golding	Holden Commodore VF	1'11.2205	1.3026
21	3	Aaren Russell    Taz Douglas	Holden Commodore VF	1'11.4495	1.5316
22	56	Jason Bright    Garry Jacobson	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'11.4860	1.5681
23	99	Dale Wood    Chris Pither	Holden Commodore VF	1'11.5324	1.6145
24	21	Tim Blanchard    Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore VF	1'11.6767	1.7588
25	78	Simona de Silvestro    David Russell	Nissan Altima	1'11.8944	1.9765
26	62	Alex Davison    Alex Rullo	Holden Commodore VF	1'12.5076	2.5897