Fabian Coulthard has edged Scott McLaughlin in a top three separated by less than a tenth in Supercars Championship Practice 3 at the Superloop Adelaide 500.

Jamie Whincup was next-best after the Shell V-Power Ford Mustangs, with Nick Percat and Chaz Mostert within a quarter of a second of the Kiwi pace-setters.

Shane van Gisbergen was 12th, David Reynolds 13th, and Mark Winterbottom 24th out of 24.

The two DJR Team Penske entries, two of Brad Jones Racing’s drivers, and Whincup, spent time with the fastest lap during the half-hour session.

Tim Slade was on top in the #14 Freightliner ZB Commodore after the first timed laps, followed by Whincup (Red Bull HRT ZB Commodore) for a brief moment before Coulthard laid down a 1:21.0296s.

McLaughlin was the first man into the 1:20s bracket in his second run, and moved the mark further in his third run on used tyres.

Coulthard, on the other hand, was already onto ‘greens’ in Car #12 as he clocked a 1:20.4761s in the 23rd minute, before Nick Percat jumped from the base of the top 10 to the lead shortly after with a 1:20.3923s in the National Pharmacies ZB Commodore.

Each of the Triple Eight and DJRTP cars took greens for their last runs, with McLaughlin setting the fastest lap of the weekend to date at 1:20.1792s.

Coulthard shaved 0.0652s from that just before the chequered flag come out to move the mark to 1:20.1140s.

“It’s all about knowing what you’ve got,” he said of taking two new sets of tyres.

“We just need to get a bit of confidence back, so that’s definitely the way to do it.

“The car’s been good all weekend I’ve been there or thereabouts, so we just need to do it when it counts.

“(The car has) been good at Phillip Island (pre-season test), it’s been good here.

“Everything’s progressing as we would like but it’s a long way to go. Don’t get too ahead of ourselves.

“We’ve got a fantastic team behind me and Scotty. Everyone’s done a fantastic job here at Shell V-Power Racing and Ford Performance in America.

“It’s not just us driving it, it’s a credit to everyone.”

Percat found a tiny improvement which ended up being the difference between fourth and fifth, the latter taken up by Mostert in the Supercheap Auto Mustang.

Slade, Will Davison (Milwaukee Mustang), and Cameron Waters (Monster Energy Mustang), who took up sixth through eighth, found time with the chequered flag out.

Anton De Pasquale (Penrite ZB Commodore) and Scott Pye (Mobil 1 Mega ZB Commodore) rounded out the top 10.

The four Kelly Racing entries came in a bunch from 17th to 20th on the timing screen, with Garry Jacobson (Rabble.Club Racing) fastest of the Braeside squad despite bumping the wall at Turn 8 earlier in the session.

The first Armor All Qualifying session of the year starts this evening at 1825 local time/1855 AEDT.

Results: Practice 3