Dean Fiore put Nissan at the top of the order in a co-driver practice session at Sydney Motorsport Park that was twice interrupted by red flags.

The 30 minute session was paused just after its halfway mark when Jonathon Webb’s Tekno Holden rolled to a stop at the exit of Turn 2.

After another short burst of green flag running, Jack Perkins was forced to pull James Courtney’s Holden Racing Team Commodore off-track at Turn 1.

Smoke had billowed from the HRT entry moments earlier, dumping significant amounts of oil on the circuit.

Both Holden teams told Speedcafe.com post-session that they expect to miss the start of the first primary driver practice, which kicks off at 1125 local time.

“It just looks like it’s dropped a clip off the front of the gearbox,” said Webb.

“It’s a shame to miss the track time but it’s no big drama for the boys to fix.”

HRT principal Adrian Burgess confirmed that Courtney’s car will not undergo an engine change before getting back on track.

“It’s an issue with an oil line which is the result of some changes we made after QR, where we had another issue,” he said.

“Hopefully the engine will be fine, but we might end up doing a change tonight.”

Fiore had meanwhile spent the session trading the fastest time with the Pepsi Max Falcon of Cameron Waters.

The Nissan driver, who had also topped the co-driver session at Ipswich, ended up with a best of 1:31.56s to be 0.05s clear of Waters.

“We had a little program to work through and everything felt good,” said Fiore. “I’m comfortable and the team’s happy.”

Dean Canto and Taz Douglas continued the Prodrive versus Nissan theme in third and fourth respectively.

DJR Team Penske’s Marcos Ambrose was fifth, 0.4s from the pace, ahead of Steve Owen, Paul Dumbrell, Webb, Steven Richards and Jack Le Brocq.

A total of 22 cars took to the track, with internationals Alex Bumbome (Nissan), Sebastien Bourdais (Walkinshaw), Alexandre Premat (Volvo) and Oliver Gavin (LDM) all missing.

As was the case at Ipswich, David Russell did an installation lap in Todd Kelly’s Nissan before spending the rest of the session in Rick Kelly’s #15, which the Carrera Cup ace will co-drive in the enduros.

Result: V8 Supercars Co-Driver Practice, Sydney Motorsport Park