Sandown 500: Fiore tops first co-driver session
Nissan Motorsport’s Dean Fiore topped a rain-affected opening co-driver session to kick off the Sandown 500 weekend.
Dean Fiore, Nissan Motorsports
Herb Powell
With spitting rain through the early stages of the 30-minute session, it was the experienced heads that popped up at the top of the time sheets.
Paul Dumbrell was the first to break under 1m10s, going fastest in the #88 Triple Eight Commodore five minutes in with a 1m09.808s.
He was replaced by Karl Reindler in the #18 Preston Hire Commodore two minutes later, before Nissan driver Dean Fiore bashed out a 1m09.644s to jump to the top.
There were several other improvements at the back end of the first 10 minutes, such as Dean Canto slotting into the second with a 1m09.751s in the #55 Prodrive Ford and Luke Youlden into third with a 1m09.751s in the #9 Erebus Commodore.
At the mid-way point of the session the rain began to intensify, making improvement all but impossible. At 17 minutes the track was declared wet, effectively freezing the order and sealing Fiore’s position at the top of the times.
The tricky conditions caught a couple of drivers out, the first being Dumbrell, who survived a scary off-track excursion on the high-speed run down the Dandenong Road.
Newcomer Richard Muscat then found himself facing backwards at Turn 4 on the 20-minute mark, although he managed to keep the #34 GRM Commodore off the wall.
With a little less the 10 minutes to go Tony D’Alberto was caught out by the outside kerb at the last corner, pitching the #12 Penske Ford into a harmless spin.
Dumbrell’s early time was enough to leave him fifth behind Fiore, Canto, Youlden, and Reindler, while Macauley Jones did a solid job in the #8 BJR Commodore to go sixth quickest.
Jack le Brocq was seventh fastest in the #7 Nissan, ahead of Warren Luff (#02 HSV Commodore), Todd Hazelwood (#4 BJR Commodore) and Porsche Supercup regular Matt Campbell (#97 Triple Eight Commodore).
Alex Premat was just 17th quickest in the points-leading #17 Penske Ford that he’ll share with Scott McLaughlin.
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