Whincup tops the timesheets in Friday practice at Bathurst

Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Jamie Whincup has topped the timesheets with a time of 2:07.5000 after Friday’s two V8 Supercars practice sessions at Bathurst. After setting the fastest time in yesterday’s practice sessions, he was the only driver into the 2:07s this morning.

It was a Triple Eight 1-2 with Craig Lowndes finishing second in Friday’s final V8 Supercars practice session (practice five). Will Davison finished the session in third for Ford Performance Racing. Steve Owen finished in fourth for Paul Morris Motorsport ahead of the Holden Racing Team’s James Courtney.

Practice five was interrupted by a red flag shortly after it began when Tony D’Alberto had an off at McPhillamy. The Commodore stopped at the entry to the dipper but D’Alberto was able to drive the car back to the pits in spite of right front damage. There was a second red flag during the session for the retrieval of the Falcon of Stone Brothers Racing’s Tim Slade from the sand at Murray’s Corner.

Scott McLaughlin was the fastest of the co-drivers in practice four. The Tekno Autosports driver set a time of 2:08.9697 to finish at the top of the timesheets at the end of the session, which was for co-drivers only.

The first Bathurst 1000 qualifying session will be held at 14:45 AEST (5:45 BST). The top ten qualifiers will then have the opportunity to compete in a top ten shootout on Saturday to determine their final grid position.