Townsville Supercars: Whincup bounces back in Practice 2

Whincup finished this morning’s first practice session just 15th fastest, and with a damaged Commodore after hitting the wall at the exit of Turn 3.

But it didn’t slow him down in the second 40-minute session. With the Red Bull-backed Triple Eight cars showing a significant turnaround in pace, Whincup finished up fastest thanks to a 1m12.553s that he banked a little under three minutes from the end.

“The guys threw a new front end on, basically a whole new front end,” said Whincup. “We did a massive amount of damage, believe it or not.

“The car is okay. I don’t think anybody really nailed it there, but I’m happy to finish the day P1.”

Prodrive Racing’s Chaz Mostert did his best to knock Whincup off top spot on his last run, but fell 0.04s short. Will Davison was another late improver, going third fastest on his final run with a 1m12.720s.

Shane van Gisbergen capped of Triple Eight’s turnaround with the fourth fastest time in the #97 Commodore. The Kiwi set his 1m12.779s very early in the session, falling short of improving on it despite setting a benchmark first sector on his final run.

Practice 1 pace-setter David Reynolds jumped from the bottom to near the top of the times to fifth quickest on his final run, while Volvo’s Scott McLaughlin enjoyed a much better session to be sixth quickest.

Mark Winterbottom was seventh quickest, James Courtney eighth, and Nissan drivers Michael Caruso and Rick Kelly ninth and 10th.

Newcomer Kurt Kostecki put in another impressive performance, out-pacing Aaren Russell by a little under a tenth at the back end of the field. He was just three-tenths slower than Tim Blanchard, and 1.5s off the front of the field.