Ipswich Supercars: Mostert edges Coulthard in second practice

It was Shane van Gisbergen that led the majority of the session, the Triple Eight driver bolting out of the gate with and impressive 1m09.575s on his very first run.

That time was quick enough to stay on top for the best part of 40 minutes, Scott McLaughlin finally knocking his fellow Kiwi off top spot with a 1m09.413s with just four minutes to go.

From there, it was a frantic end to the session. Nissan driver Rick Kelly was next in line to make a big gain, jumping to the top with a 1m09.346s. He was very quickly replaced by Erebus driver David Reynolds with a 1m09.264s, before Mostert landed the hammer blow with a lightning quick 1m08.996s just seconds before the flag came out.

Fabian Coulthard, van Gisbergen, and Kelly all made late gains in the closing seconds of the session, but in the end Mostert held on by 0.109s.

“Car has felt pretty good for most of the day. The first session we tried doing some stuff to our programme, but we didn’t feel it was too comfortable,” said Mostert.

“Them didn’t feel too bad, but it still doesn’t feel that right. I think the track has deteriorated over the last couple of years here and maybe the guys that test here know how much it’s deteriorated. For us, it didn’t feel like one of my best QR laps, but overall the time was impressive.”

DJR Team Penske driver Coulthard ended up second with his late improvement, van Gisbergen slotting into third ahead of Kelly and Reynolds.

Mark Winterbottom made big gains after his frustrating first session to go sixth quickest, ahead of Craig Lowndes, Lee Holdsworth, Cam Waters, and McLaughlin – who tumbled all the way down to 10th after being top with four minutes to go.

Jamie Whincup ended up a long way down the order, struggling to just 20th spot.

“We didn’t get a clean run so I don’t think we showed what we had,” said Whincup.

“The car wasn’t that flash, but there’s no panic stations. We’ll make the car better tomorrow and I’m confident we should be somewhere there.”