Fords fast in final Hidden Valley practice

Scott Pye led a quartet of Ford Falcons at the top of the order in the final Supercars practice session at Hidden Valley.

Mark Winterbottom held P1 until the final moments of the 15 minute run, before Chaz Mostert and then Pye pipped The Bottle-O Falcon in the dying moments.

Fabian Coulthard put the second DJR Team Penske Ford fourth at the chequered flag, just 0.16s down on Pye’s 1:06.26s.

Pye is debuting a new chassis this weekend as the team continues to chase its first win under its American ownership.

“Yesterday was good and we tuned it up a bit overnight,” smiled Pye post-session.

“On used tyres it was pretty good and now we’ll see what it’ll do on greens in qualifying.

“It’s really slippery off-line here, so you’re kind of under-driving to the limit.

“You always think there’s a little more time in it, so we’ll see what we can put together.”

Second fastest man Mostert is also eyeing his first win of the year in today’s 120km race.

“We had a good run then, but we don’t know where we’re at with everyone else,” he said.

“We still need a little bit more stability, so if we can get that I think we’ll be thereabouts.”

Winton winner Tim Slade was the top Holden runner in fifth ahead of Michael Caruso, Craig Lowndes, Shane van Gisbergen, Will Davison and Jason Bright.

All 26 cars took to the track, with Erebus mechanics having worked until 10:30pm last night repairing damage to Aaren Russell’s Holden following its crash in second practice.

Qualifying for Race 12 of the season will get underway at 1140 local time.

Result: Virgin Australia Supercars Championship CrownBet Darwin Triple Crown Practice 3