Jamie Whincup fastest on Friday, Prémat top co-driver

Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Jamie Whincup set the fastest time of the day in the first practice session at Sandown, but it was Alexandre Prémat who dominated the following two co-driver dedicated sessions, setting the fastest time in the Volvo Polestar Racing S60 in both FP2 and FP3, and the second fastest time of the day overall.

Whincup set the best time of 1:09.193 in the first free practice session ahead of the Holden Racing Team Commodore of Garth Tander by four-tenths of a second, with Tander’s team-mate James Courtney just a further tenth of a second behind, with the Volvo of Scott McLaughlin fourth and Lee Holdsworth’s Erebus Mercedes fifth.

In the first of the practice sessions for co-drivers only, Alexandre Prémat was quickest on his return at GRM, now driving the Volvo S60, setting a time of 1:09.904, a tenth of a second clear of the Tekno Autosports Holden of Jonathon Webb, with Paul Dumbrell third fastest in the Triple Eight Holden.

Prémat would find even more time in FP3 and would set a time of 1:09.523, four-tenths quicker than his closest competitor, which was now Dumbrell, with Webb dropping to third.

Greg Ritter made it a doubly good showing for Volvo, setting the fourth fastest time in FP3 with the #34 car, closely followed by Taz Douglas in the #360 Nissan Altima.

The final practice session takes place on Saturday at 10:05 local time, followed by qualifying and the two qualifying race heats.