Davison leads DJR one-two in Perth Supercars practice

Will Davison headed up a Shell V-Power Racing Team one-two in the second and final practice session for the Bunnings Trade Perth SuperNight.

He and Anton De Pasquale were the only two drivers to lap under Cameron Waters’ Practice 1 benchmark at Wanneroo Raceway, while Repco Supercars Championship leader Shane van Gisbergen ended up third for the session.

After a brief set of first runs, Jack Le Brocq (#34 Truck Assist ZB Commodore) was quickest on a 0:54.4100s, before several big guns were sent out on green tyres.

Davison (#17 Mustang) clocked a 0:54.2071s but van Gisbergen soon knocked that off with a 0:54.0490s, and Scott Pye (#20 Nulon ZB Commodore) took up third on a 0:54.3086s.

With around 10 minutes to go, Waters (#6 Monster Energy Mustang) on a 0:54.3011s and then Mark Winterbottom (#18 Irwin Tools ZB Commodore) on a 0:54.2125s went to third spot.

Davison was first to beat Waters’ earlier pace-setter when he clocked a 0:53.9093s in the 23rd minute and De Pasquale, whose #11 Mustang had a steering rack change between sessions, was next to do so with a 0:53.9397s two minutes later.

Van Gisbergen looked a threat to beat both of them when he went fastest to the first sector in the final two minutes, but was slower to the second intermediate.

Any chance he had of moving up the order on that lap was snuffed out when the #97 Red Bull Ampol ZB Commodore recorded a kerb strike at Turn 7, and he would go no faster than his aforementioned 0:54.0490s.

Said Davison at the conclusion of another 30 minutes of practice, “We made good improvement from session one to session two there.

“I enjoyed that lap, there’s nothing between us [Davison and De Pasquale], hundredths, splitting hairs but we’re working together, all of us.

“We still know where our weakness is, maybe not over one lap but just even looking at the micros [microsectors], there’s a lot of T8 customer cars in there and we can see where Shane is very strong.

“We’re still focused on fixing a few of things, particularly in the first sector.

“It feels really nice but we know the story of the last few events and what we’re trying to focus on.”

Matt Stone Racing took fourth and fifth positions, with Le Brocq setting a 0:54.1788s and Todd Hazelwood (#35 ZB Commodore) a 0:54.2044s.

The top 10 was rounded out by Winterbottom, David Reynolds (#26 Penrite Mustang), Macauley Jones (#96 Tools.com ZB Commodore), Chris Pither (#22 Coca-Cola ZB Commodore), and James Courtney (#5 Snowy River Caravans Mustang).

After an eventful opening session in Perth, the latter had something of an incident with Chaz Mostert, with whom he had come to blows at Albert Park, late in Practice 2.

A replay showed Courtney swerving to avoid a #25 Mobil 1 Optus ZB Commodore which was already drifting across the track as they ran down the hill, although no serious harm was done.

Waters ended up 11th on a 0:54.2808s and Mostert was 19th, just as he had been in the earlier hit-out, on a 0:54.4375s.

Qualifying for Race 10 of the season, a three-part knockout session, starts at 14:40 local time/16:40 AEST, before tonight’s 46-lapper at 18:40 local time/20:40 AEST.

Results: Practice 2