Ipswich Supercars: Van Gisbergen leads frantic second practice
Shane van Gisbergen came out on top of a frantic end to Friday Supercars running at Queensland Raceway.
Photo by: Mark Horsburgh, Edge Photographics
The Triple Eight driver was best of a flurry of late times, a 1m09.244s after switching to green tyres helping him pip Penske driver Fabian Coulthard right at the flag.
"It was just a frustrating day," said the pacesetter.
"We've been running around on crap tyres. There's been no wet races this year and we've finished all of [the races], so we've got no tyres left. Everyone is in the same boat. It's just frustrating. Then you put a better set on, and a new set, and the car is better – all your problems are solved.
"But yeah, the car feels really competitive. The car is awesome, it's just frustrating not having a good feel for it."
It was van Gisbergen's teammate Jamie Whincup who led the way in the early part of the session, the reigning champ first to set a representative time with a 1m09.876s on the 10-minute mark.
David Reynolds was also into the 1m09s early with a 1m09.923s to go second quickest, before taking over from Whincup at the top 10 minutes later with a 1m09.657s.
The Erebus driver then lowered that benchmark to 1m09.571s six minutes later, which meant he went into the five minute 'happy hour' at the end of the session leading the way.
He was even first to make a big gain on the final run, stretching his gap at the top with a 1m09.488s with 90 seconds of the session left to run.
That sparked a number of late improvements, the best being van Gisbergen and Coulthard who were split by just 0.08s.
Chaz Mostert was third fastest, having been the first driver to knock Reynolds from top spot, while Rick Kelly, Mark Winterbottom, and Practice 1 pacesetter Whincup all chimed in right at the flag to lock out spots fourth to sixth.
Reynolds was shuffled down to seventh ahead of Michael Caruso and Craig Lowndes, while Richie Stanaway capped off a decent day of running for Tickford with 10th.
Simona de Silvestro caused a stir by going sixth quickest late in the session, although she was ultimately bumped back to 11th thanks to the late improvements.
Scott McLaughlin ended up down in 12th, a poor final sector costing him on his final run before he ran out of fuel on-track with a couple of minutes to go.
"It's a different view spot that's for sure, I don't recommend it," he said of his unique spectating position for the last two minutes of the session.
"It was our last run for the day, but we just went a bit too short on the fuel. The boys weren't able to fuel up before the end there unfortunately.
"Fabs is up there, there's no reason why I can't do that time. I believe our car was good enough to go even faster. We have a really good day."
Cla | # | Driver | Car | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 97 | Shane van Gisbergen | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'09.2446 | |
2 | 12 | Fabian Coulthard | Ford Falcon FG X | 1'09.3285 | 0.0839 |
3 | 55 | Chaz Mostert | Ford Falcon FG X | 1'09.3635 | 0.1189 |
4 | 15 | Rick Kelly | Nissan Altima | 1'09.3948 | 0.1502 |
5 | 5 | Mark Winterbottom | Ford Falcon FG X | 1'09.4314 | 0.1868 |
6 | 1 | Jamie Whincup | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'09.4863 | 0.2417 |
7 | 9 | David Reynolds | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'09.4888 | 0.2442 |
8 | 23 | Michael Caruso | Nissan Altima | 1'09.4952 | 0.2506 |
9 | 888 | Craig Lowndes | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'09.5493 | 0.3047 |
10 | 56 | Richie Stanaway | Ford Falcon FG X | 1'09.5686 | 0.3240 |
11 | 78 | Simona de Silvestro | Nissan Altima | 1'09.5735 | 0.3289 |
12 | 17 | Scott McLaughlin | Ford Falcon FG X | 1'09.6010 | 0.3564 |
13 | 8 | Nick Percat | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'09.6153 | 0.3707 |
14 | 21 | Tim Blanchard | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'09.6605 | 0.4159 |
15 | 120 | Will Davison | Ford Falcon FG X | 1'09.6928 | 0.4482 |
16 | 34 | James Golding | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'09.7116 | 0.4670 |
17 | 18 | Lee Holdsworth | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'09.7376 | 0.4930 |
18 | 6 | Cameron Waters | Ford Falcon FG X | 1'09.7497 | 0.5051 |
19 | 7 | Andre Heimgartner | Nissan Altima | 1'09.7889 | 0.5443 |
20 | 25 | James Courtney | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'09.8188 | 0.5742 |
21 | 2 | Scott Pye | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'09.8283 | 0.5837 |
22 | 99 | Anton de Pasquale | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'09.8472 | 0.6026 |
23 | 19 | Jack Le Brocq | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'09.8548 | 0.6102 |
24 | 33 | Garth Tander | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'09.9431 | 0.6985 |
25 | 14 | Tim Slade | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'09.9712 | 0.7266 |
26 | 42 | Kurt Kostecki | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'10.2660 | 1.0214 |
27 | 35 | Todd Hazelwood | Ford Falcon FG X | 1'10.3182 | 1.0736 |
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