Sandown 500: Whincup fastest, Mostert shunts in Practice 2

After co-driver Paul Dumbrell obliterated the field in this morning's co-driver session, Whincup was back in control as the primary drivers joined the fun for the second 30-minute hit-out of the day.

The reigning series champ was on top the whole way through, first going quickest with a 1m08.112s. He then shifted the benchmark down to a 1m08.089s with 10 minutes to go, before settling on a 1m07.968s on his final run.

That time was good enough to edge out teammate Shane van Gisbergen by 0.09s, despite being fractionally slow than Dumbrell went in the earlier session.

While happy to be quickest, Whincup was left perplexed by the patchwork condition of the re-worked Sandown surface.

"It’s sort of frustrating that they decided to fill the gaps in the track the day before the biggest race of the year here," said Whincup.

"Do it two or three days or a week and we don’t have an issue with rubber flying everywhere. But it’s the same for everyone, we tune to the conditions.

“But we cracked on, the car’s good, and we got through what we wanted to.”

Van Gisbergen's time came late in the session, the Kiwi piecing together a two-lap stint in the closing minutes that saw him go third quickest and then second quickest on consecutive laps.

James Courtney was third thanks to a late improvement of his own, the Walkinshaw driver impressed with the feedback he's getting from his Holden.

"All in all, we’d been talking about a numbness in the car all year, and we went to The Bend and I could feel it hooking up and loading, and all that is still there," said the 2010 champ.

“It makes the job so much easier when you can feel that. It makes the changes a lot easier to make, pin-pointing the areas where you need that speed.”

Garth Tander was fourth, while Craig Lowndes – who was second quickest with five minutes to go – was shuffled back to fifth.

Reigning Sandown winner Cam Waters was best of the Tickford Fords in sixth, followed by Nissan's Andre Heimgartner and DJR Team Penske's pacesetter Fabian Coulthard.

Mostert finished up ninth, despite only taking part in half of the session. The Tickford driver had been sitting second early on, before backing his Falcon onto the entry kerb and then into the wall at Turn 4.

"It’s pretty filthy offline for some weird reason,” he said.

“I got a bit wide on that kerb, we used it all last year in the race, but it’s very dirty and slid out underneath me and I couldn’t save it quick enough.”

Scott Pye was 10th quickest in his Walkinshaw Holden, followed by a title contender Scott McLaughlin and reigning Bathurst champion David Reynolds.

The main drivers are now finished for the day, with this afternoon's sole remaining practice session only for co-drivers. The primary drivers will return for the 15-minute all-in practice session tomorrow morning.

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Interval
1	1	Jamie Whincup Paul Dumbrell	Holden Commodore ZB	1'07.9688
2	97	Earl Bamber Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.0680	0.0992	0.0992
3	25	James Courtney Jack Perkins	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.0714	0.1026	0.0034
4	33	Garth Tander Chris Pither	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.2734	0.3046	0.2020
5	888	Steven Richards Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.3377	0.3689	0.0643
6	6	David Russell Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG X	1'08.3694	0.4006	0.0317
7	7	Andre Heimgartner Aaren Russell	Nissan Altima	1'08.3725	0.4037	0.0031
8	12	Tony D'Alberto Fabian Coulthard	Ford Falcon FG X	1'08.3816	0.4128	0.0091
9	55	Chaz Mostert James Moffat	Ford Falcon FG X	1'08.4008	0.4320	0.0192
10	2	Warren Luff Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.4092	0.4404	0.0084
11	17	Alexandre Prémat Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG X	1'08.4604	0.4916	0.0512
12	9	David Reynolds Luke Youlden	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.4711	0.5023	0.0107
13	99	Will Brown Anton de	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.4830	0.5142	0.0119
14	14	Tim Slade Ash Walsh	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.4832	0.5144	0.0002
15	5	Mark Winterbottom Dean Canto	Ford Falcon FG X	1'08.5007	0.5319	0.0175
16	23	Michael Caruso Dean Fiore	Nissan Altima	1'08.5039	0.5351	0.0032
17	8	Nick Percat Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.5040	0.5352	0.0001
18	15	Rick Kelly Garry Jacobson	Nissan Altima	1'08.5815	0.6127	0.0775
19	230	Alex Davison Will Davison	Ford Falcon FG X	1'08.5994	0.6306	0.0179
20	34	James Golding Richard Muscat	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.6486	0.6798	0.0492
21	18	Lee Holdsworth Jason Bright	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.6876	0.7188	0.0390
22	19	Jonathon Webb Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.6955	0.7267	0.0079
23	78	Simona de Silvestro Alex Rullo	Nissan Altima	1'08.9356	0.9668	0.2401
24	56	Richie Stanaway Steven Owen	Ford Falcon FG X	1'08.9694	1.0006	0.0338
25	21	Dale Wood Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore ZB	1'09.0854	1.1166	0.1160
26	35	Bryce Fullwood Todd Hazelwood	Ford Falcon FG X	1'09.3372	1.3684	0.2518