Tony D’Alberto has topped a red flag punctuated second V8 Supercars practice session of the day at the Coates Hire Ipswich 300.

The Hiflex Falcon driver moved to the top of the order with a 1:10.64s effort on just his third flying lap of the sun-bathed circuit, before improving the benchmark to 1:10.48s prior to the red flags being called.

The stoppage, to retrieve Jonathon Webb’s stranded Tekno Autosports Holden from the Turn 2 sand trap, soaked up almost nine minutes, leaving just 90 seconds of green flag running prior to the chequered flag.

With no improvements recorded in the final seconds, Warren Luff held onto his position of second in the order ahead of David Besnard, Luke Youlden and Craig Baird.

Steve Owen was the fastest of the championship runners allowed into the endurance co-driver and bottom 50 percent session, ending up sixth fastest.

Nick Percat, David Russell, Tim Blanchard and Steven Richards completed the top 10, with only D’Alberto and Luff managing to undercut Scott Pye’s fastest time from the preceding Dunlop Series practice.

Chris Pither again had his running hampered by axle seal issues, this time on the right-rear corner of the Wilson Security Racing Commodore. The Kiwi ended the 30 minutes 27th fastest.

Slowest of all was Jacques Villeneuve in the Pepsi Max Crew Holden – the former Formula 1 World Champion’s best effort proving 4.46s adrift of D’Alberto’s best.

The full field of championship runners will hit the track for the first time at 1410, while a fourth session will complete the day’s running from 1445.

See below for the full session result

See below for Speedcafe.com’s Coates Hire 300 Race Guide