Whincup and Bourdais on top in Gold Coast 600 practice

Triple Eight’s driving pairing of Jamie Whincup and Sébastien Bourdais were the strongest of all at Free Practice at the Gold Coast, with Bourdais almost seven-tenths of a second faster than anyone in the International Drivers’ session.

Of the four sessions, the second and third were for the International Drivers only, in which Bourdais set the benchmark both times. Bourdais’ lap of 1:12.993 in the second session was three-tenths up on Triple Eight team-mate Andy Priaulx, and he went even faster in the third session with a lap 1:12.409, the only International Driver in the 1:12s.

Sébastien Bourdais is paired up with Jamie Whincup this weekend in the #88 Holden Commodore. Bourdais was scheduled to run with Craig Lowndes, however Triple Eight switched them around when Lowndes took the lead of the Championship after Bathurst. Andy Priaulx drove for Triple Eight last year, winning the International Drivers’ Trophy, whilst Bourdais competed in the #19 car then run by Dick Johnson Racing for Jonathon Webb.

In the final session, most of the best times came with the majority of teams just fielding their full time drivers in a session where the decision was up to the teams. Jamie Whincup put the #88 car again at the top of the timesheets, but the gap to team-mate Craig Lowndes in the #888 car this time was just 0.010s.

Will Davison was third fastest in the Ford Performance Racing Falcon, with Tim Slade’s Stone Brothers Racing Ford Falcon fourth quickest.

The next session is qualifying for race one, which takes place at 9:35 on Saturday.