Coulthard leads DJR Team Penske one-two in Practice 2

Fabian Coulthard has set the pace from team-mate Scott McLaughlin in Practice 2 at the WD-40 Phillip Island SuperSprint, while Jamie Whincup missed the top 10.

The two Shell V-Power Mustangs were separated by just 0.0060s while Shane van Gisbergen knocked fellow Red Bull Holden Racing Team driver Whincup out of the top 10 by 0.0101s ahead of knockout Armor All Qualifying tomorrow.

In a session in which the wind swapped direction relative to Practice 1 to a headwind on Gardner Straight, Ford Mustangs took five of the top six positions.

They were broken up by Rick Kelly in the #15 Castrol Altima in fourth position, while earlier pace-setter Anton De Pasquale was Holden’s best in seventh in the #99 Penrite ZB Commodore.

As expected, the half-hour session came down to a final rush of lap times, at which point Whincup was on top with a 1:31.2376s on somewhat used tyres.

McLaughlin clocked a 1:30.1867s in the final three minutes in Car #17 only for Fabian Coulthard to move the mark to a 1:30.1807s a few moments later in the #12 DJR Team Penske entry.

“It’s good that we’ve got two fast cars; that’s the main thing,” said Coulthard.

“It’s hard to know really where you’re at when the Triple Eight Holdens are not there. We’ll have to just go through everything tonight and see if we can make it better.

“This is one of those tracks that you find a little bit, you find a lot. I’m not a hundred percent happy, I don’t think you are ever a hundred percent happy. We can make it better.”

Lee Holdsworth (#5 The Bottle-O Mustang), Kelly, and finally Cameron Waters (#6 Monster Energy Mustang) then took up third position, 0.2601s slower than McLaughlin around the 4.45km Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit.

Will Davison (#23 Milwaukee Mustang) in fact ended up fifth, 0.1619s quicker than Tickford-run stablemate Holdsworth.

De Pasquale’s fastest lap pushed Whincup outside the top 10 before the seven-time champion clawed back one position in the #88 ZB Commodore with the chequered flag out.

However, van Gisbergen was still buried near the bottom of the order and he just managed to deny his fellow Triple Eight driver a bye to the second part of Qualifying for Race 9 with a 1:30.9339.

“Disappointed, disappointed,” said Whincup.

“We want to be in the (top) 10, we pushed pretty hard; only a hundredth behind my teammate so that sucks, he just knocked me out at the end there. It’s the way it goes, we’ll keep fighting on.

“We’ve got Todd Hazelwood up there in my car from last year, those guys are doing a better job than we are at the moment so we’ve got to pull our finger out.

“We’re just looking for front and rear, we’re just looking for grip all-round. We’ve got some work to do, that’s all good, it’s all good.”

Hazelwood was in fact the best of the Triple Eight-built ZB runners in eight position in the #35 Matt Stone Racing entry, while Chaz Mostert (#55 Supercheap Auto Mustang) was last of the Tickford-fielded quartet but still only as far back as ninth.

Whincup, Nick Percat (#8 7-Eleven ZB Commodore), and Andre Heimgartner (#7 Plus Fitness Altima), the latter of whom had an engine change between the day’s sessions, all missed the top 10 by less than a tenth of a second.

David Reynolds (#9 Erebus ZB Commodore) was 14th and the last of those to get within a second of Coulthard’s pace, while Mark Winterbottom was 18th in the #18 Irwin Racing ZB Commodore.

The next session for the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship field is Practice 3 (30 minutes), tomorrow at 1040 local time/AEST.

Results: Practice 2