Fabian Coulthard’s bid to turn around a difficult weekend so far for Lockwood Racing has seen the Kiwi record the fastest time in the warm-up for today’s Dick Smith Sandown 500.
Coulthard, whose car will start 18th in today’s race, set his best time of 1:10.32s early in the 20 minutes of running.
Mark Winterbottom recorded a lap just 0.25s slower to jump to second in the closing stages ahead of Tony D’Alberto, Rick Kelly and Michael Caruso.
Several drivers found the outfield during the session, which ended with the Andrew Jones-driven Team BOC Holden in the Turn 9 gravel, and the David Russell-driven Jack Daniel’s Racing Holden parked up against the Turn 4 tyre wall.
Jones’ primary driver Jason Bright had earlier endured a touch of his own with the Turn 4 barrier.
Others to go off included pole-sitter Shane van Gisbergen, whose car suffered a hard landing in the Turn 2/3 infield hollow, and Craig Lowndes, who locked a left-front tyre and speared off at Turn 1.
There was drama too for the #51 Greg Murphy/Owen Kelly Holden, which failed to complete a flying lap due to oil pressure issues.
See below for the full warm-up result
| 1 | F.Coulthard/D.Besnard | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:10.3224 | |
| 2 | M.Winterbottom | Ford Falcon FG | 1:10.5740 | 0:00.2516 |
| 3 | T.D’Alberto/D.Wood | Ford Falcon FG | 1:10.5810 | 0:00.2586 |
| 4 | R.Kelly/D.Russell | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:10.5962 | 0:00.2738 |
| 5 | M.Caruso/G.Ritter | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:10.7411 | 0:00.4187 |
| 6 | S.Owen/P.Morris | Ford Falcon FG | 1:10.7695 | 0:00.4471 |
| 7 | J.Whincup/P.Dumbrell | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:10.8013 | 0:00.4789 |
| 8 | L.Holdsworth/C.Baird | Ford Falcon FG | 1:10.8066 | 0:00.4842 |
| 9 | T.Slade/A.Thompson | Ford Falcon FG | 1:10.8623 | 0:00.5399 |
| 10 | C.Lowndes/W.Luff | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:10.9102 | 0:00.5878 |
| 11 | J.Courtney/C.McConville | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:11.0029 | 0:00.6805 |
| 12 | D.Reynolds/D.Canto | Ford Falcon FG | 1:11.0215 | 0:00.6991 |
| 13 | G.Tander/N.Percat | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:11.0328 | 0:00.7104 |
| 14 | R.Ingall/C.Klien | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:11.0408 | 0:00.7184 |
| 15 | W.Davison/J.McIntyre | Ford Falcon FG | 1:11.0683 | 0:00.7459 |
| 16 | A.Premat/J.Perkins | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:11.1062 | 0:00.7838 |
| 17 | D.Wall/C.Pither | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:11.1497 | 0:00.8273 |
| 18 | J.Bright/A.Jones | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:11.1693 | 0:00.8469 |
| 19 | J.Webb/S.McLaughlin | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:11.2764 | 0:00.9540 |
| 20 | T.Kelly/T.Blanchard | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:11.2835 | 0:00.9611 |
| 21 | J.Moffat/A.Davison | Ford Falcon FG | 1:11.2884 | 0:00.9660 |
| 22 | S.Johnson/A.Simonsen | Ford Falcon FG | 1:11.3166 | 0:00.9942 |
| 23 | M.Patrizi/J.Reid | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:11.3568 | 0:01.0344 |
| 24 | S.Van Gisbergen | Ford Falcon FG | 1:11.4976 | 0:01.1752 |
| 25 | K.Reindler/D.Gaunt | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:11.5601 | 0:01.2377 |
| 26 | D.Fiore/M.Halliday | Ford Falcon FG | 1:11.6904 | 0:01.3680 |
| 27 | T.Douglas/S.Pye | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:11.7632 | 0:01.4408 |
| 28 | Greg Murphy | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:10.3224 |
See below for Speedcafe.com’s Sandown 500 Race Guide
