Perth Supercars: Van Gisbergen breaks practice lap record

The Red Bull Holden driver was the best of an explosion of fast times in the closing seconds of the session, his 54.776s one of two laps under the existing lap record.

It followed a quiet first session for van Gisbergen, who was just outside the Top 10, the Kiwi claiming better rubber was the key to his upturn in speed.

“We put some good [tyres] on and we’re flying,” he said. “That’s the name of our game, we’re always limited on tyres. We were feeling it out all day, the car has felt terrible. But we kept chipping away, bolted a new set on, and found two seconds.”

The other driver to go under Jamie Whincup’s old practice lap record was points leader Fabian Coulthard, who had jumped to the top with 54.790s with a minute to go, only to be beaten by van Gisbergen moments later.

“We’re pretty happy with the pace at the moment,” he said. “We’re sticking to the plan, we had lots of laps and lots of running. I’m happy with the progress.”

Whincup narrowly missed out on a 54s lap, ending up third with a 55.045s, while Prodrive Racing’s Mark Winterbottom was just behind with a 55.092s.

Chaz Mostert was fifth quickest right behind his teammate Winterbottom, with Craig Lowndes slipping from top spot with two minutes to go to sixth thanks to all the late improvements.

Cam Waters, Will Davison, Todd Kelly, and Nick Percat made up the rest of the Top 10.

The session saw the first red flag of the day, Perth high school student Alex Rullo firing off at the final corner after pulling a bump-and-run on Jamie Whincup just one corner earlier.

He ended up 24th, while new teammate Matt Brabham slipped down to 26th and last, a little over three seconds off the pacesetters.

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore VF	54.7762
2	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Falcon FG-X	54.7906	0.0144
3	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore VF	55.0457	0.2695
4	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG-X	55.0921	0.3159
5	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG-X	55.1330	0.3568
6	888	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore VF	55.2728	0.4966
7	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG-X	55.2952	0.5190
8	19	Will Davison	Holden Commodore VF	55.2969	0.5207
9	7	Todd Kelly	Nissan Altima	55.3588	0.5826
10	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore VF	55.4570	0.6808
11	56	Jason Bright	Ford Falcon FG-X	55.4594	0.6832
12	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG-X	55.4697	0.6935
13	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore VF	55.4764	0.7002
14	18	Lee Holdsworth	Holden Commodore VF	55.5437	0.7675
15	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore VF	55.6524	0.8762
16	21	Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore VF	55.7012	0.9250
17	34	James Moffat	Holden Commodore VF	55.7573	0.9811
18	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore VF	55.8056	1.0294
19	33	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore VF	55.8181	1.0419
20	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	55.9857	1.2095
21	22	James Courtney	Holden Commodore VF	55.9857	1.2095
22	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	56.1218	1.3456
23	23	Michael Caruso	Nissan Altima	56.2181	1.4419
24	62	Alex Rullo	Holden Commodore VF	56.4797	1.7035
25	99	Dale Wood	Holden Commodore VF	56.5990	1.8228
26	3	Matt Brabham	Holden Commodore VF	58.0622	3.2860