Sydney Supercars: Mostert tops weather-affected practice

While the majority of the hour-long session was staged on a dry, cool circuit, the usual happy hour was spoilt by a downpour that arrived six minutes from the end.

Not that it worried Chaz Mostert; the Prodrive Racing star bashed out what was relatively comfortably the fastest lap of the session 24 mins from the end, his 1m30.334s leaving him just over a tenth clear of the field.

“I think Practice 1 was all about what tyres you’re on. We were on hards most the session, and then banged some softs on,” said Mostert.

“The car felt pretty good. I think because we had those runs on hards, we got a bit used to the track before we did our run. It is good, confidence building, but it’s so tight at the top.”

Tim Slade wound up second in the BJR Commodore, having made the switch to fresher tyres right before the rain arrived at the end of the session.

Michael Caruso, who had been fastest midway through, finished up third in the Nissan, ahead of Scott McLaughlin (Volvo) and Rick Kelly (Nissan), who both set their best times inside the first third of the session.

Jamie Whincup was sixth fastest in his brand new Triple Eight chassis, with James Moffat seventh in the #34 Volvo, and Shane van Gisbergen eighth in the #97 T8 Commodore.

Holden Racing Team drivers James Courtney and Garth Tander were ninth and 11th respectively, split by Prodrive’s Mark Winterbottom.

Lee Holdsworth made a cameo appearance in practice, the injured driving completing a handful of laps in the middle of the session. It wasn’t an incident-free stint either, Holdsworth going for a wild ride after running wide at Turn 1.

“It was a bit hard, because the car had no grip. I was going to ask Karl [Reindler] if he did burnouts on the way in, because it just had that little grip,” he said.

“But I feel good. It’s just nice to get back out there, get back on track and feel what the new car feels like.”