Townsville Supercars: Coulthard fastest in final practice

The Triple Eight Holdens set the early pace, Jamie Whincup initially quickest with a 1m13.098s before Shane van Gisbergen took over with a 1m12.974s.

The next change at the top came 11 minutes in, Coulthard going quickest with a 1m12.806s. Five minutes later Scott McLaughlin made it a Penske Mustang one-two, slotting into second, 0.05s off his teammate.

Chaz Mostert was briefly quickest as the session ticked into its final third thanks to a 1m12.640s, only for McLaughlin to lower the benchmark next time around with a 1m12.577s.

McLaughlin returned for the Happy Hour at the end of the session, improving to a 1m12.449s with a minute to go.

But it wasn't good enough to hold off Coulthard, who grabbed P1 with a 1m12.286s right at the flag.

"We've just made a couple of adjustments here and there, nothing too crazy, not far from our window," said Coulthard.

"I'm relatively happy. [My lap] was okay. You're probably still exploring the boundaries a bit seeing what you can get away with in qualifying.

"Last corner wasn't perfect, but the rest of the lap was pretty good."

Nick Percat was a very late improver to finish second, 0.16s behind Coulthard, which left McLaughlin back in third and ruing a small mistake at the final corner on his green tyre run.

"I went deep, I made a stuff-up, went wide," said the points leader.

"Fabs did a good lap so it's good to look at his data, there's definitely a lot left in my thing.

"The car was really good, I just need to put the lap together myself. I'll look at the data where we went wrong. I'm actually really happy with the car."

Lee Holdsworth was the best of the Tickford Mustangs in fourth, followed by Whincup, Mostert and Tim Slade.

Rick Kelly led the way for the Nissans in eighth, with Scott Pye ninth and Will Davison 10th.

There were some big names well off the pace, with van Gisbergen slipping all the way back to 18th, and David Reynolds just 20th.

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	333	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Mustang GT	1'12.2862
2	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	1'12.4494	0.1632
3	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Mustang GT	1'12.4668	0.1806
4	5	Lee Holdsworth	Ford Mustang GT	1'12.5808	0.2946
5	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	1'12.6045	0.3183
6	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Mustang GT	1'12.6403	0.3541
7	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore ZB	1'12.7638	0.4776
8	100	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	1'12.7698	0.4836
9	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	1'12.7751	0.4889
10	23	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	1'12.8406	0.5544
11	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	1'12.8530	0.5668
12	35	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	1'12.8709	0.5847
13	18	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	1'12.8756	0.5894
14	99	Anton De Pasquale	Holden Commodore ZB	1'12.8898	0.6036
15	19	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	1'12.8981	0.6119
16	21	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	1'12.9293	0.6431
17	7	Andre Heimgartner	Nissan Altima	1'12.9348	0.6486
18	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	1'12.9741	0.6879
19	22	James Courtney	Holden Commodore ZB	1'13.0295	0.7433
20	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore ZB	1'13.1246	0.8384
21	3	Garry Jacobson	Nissan Altima	1'13.1487	0.8625
22	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	1'13.1641	0.8779
23	34	James Golding	Holden Commodore ZB	1'13.2704	0.9842
24	33	Michael Caruso	Holden Commodore ZB	1'13.7269	1.4407