Van Gisbergen hails turnaround after 'junk' practice

The Triple Eight driver, an outsider to win a second consecutive title, was just 19th fastest in the first 40-minute session at his home track earlier today, finishing up nearly eight-tenths off the pace on a lap that's barely over a minute long.

To make matters worse the three main title contenders Scott McLaughlin, Fabian Coulthard, and Jamie Whincup were one-to-three in that opening session.

Van Gisbergen tempered that horrid opening practice with an impressive turnaround for the second session, finding the best part of seven tenths to go sixth fastest.

According to the Kiwi, the recovery from a 'junk' first session was impressive.

"The first session was junk, but we did some pretty good work between the sessions, worked the boys hard over the break, and straight away the car was much nicer [in Practice 2]," he said.

"Then we were able to go about tuning it properly.

"The change we thought would be really good for the first session was just irreversible, so that was a shame, and we had to take the time to make it better.

"Second practice was much better. I stayed on track the whole session and it felt really good. We made good progress, so we’re feeling better for tomorrow."

Coulthard unfazed by pace drop

DJR Team Penske driver Coulthard went the opposite way to van Gisbergen between the practice sessions, losing time in the second outing.

Having been second-quickest behind McLaughlin in P1, the Kiwi slumped to 14th and half a second off the pace in the second session.

Still, on combined times he was still seventh quickest, and says he's confident he can run up the front tomorrow.

"There's no reason why we can't," he said.

"Practice is practice, and that's the time to explore the avenues. You only get such limited running, so you've got to try and do the best you can. You have to do some of the testing at events, and that's what we're doing.

"We'll go through all the information overnight, what we learnt, what we didn't learn, and come back tomorrow."

It's straight into qualifying for the Supercars crews tomorrow, a 20-minute session to determine the grid for Race 1 the very first running.