Ipswich Supercars: Whincup fastest, Pye crashes hard

Pye went into the wall hard at Turn 3, a suspected brake failure sending him off the track and into the tyre at full speed with around 70 seconds of the session remaining.

He hopped out of the car unaided, and appears to have not been seriously injured.

“He came on [the radio] and said it was brake failure,” confirmed DJR Team Penske boss Ryan Story on the television coverage. “We’re having a look at it here, we’ll talk to him when he gets back [to the garage].”

Jamie Whincup, meanwhile, ended up fastest, a significant turnaround after struggling during yesterday’s two sessions. The Triple Eight driver did, however, admit to running green tyres to set his benchmark 1m10.102s.

“We ran good tyres then, I’m not sure how many other people did,” he said. “[So] we’re artificially right at the front. The car is miles better today. It’s crazy, some of the toughest days we have are at our test track. We’ll see what this afternoon brings.”

Mark Winterbottom, who was sitting right behind Pye when he went off, finished the session second fastest, less than a tenth behind Whincup. Prodrive Racing team-mate Chris Pithe continued his strong practice form with the third quickest time, ahead of Craig Lowndes and James Courtney.

Cam Waters was sixth in his Prodrive Racing Ford, with Jason Bright seventh, the Nissans of Rick Kelly and Michael Caruso in eighth and ninth, and Shane van Gisbergen in P10.