James Golding has gone fastest in practice for Round 1 of the VHT Australian S5000 Championship at Albert Park.

Golding’s best was a 1:51.1937s in the #31 Garry Rogers Motorsport entry which left him 0.0072s clear of Thomas Randle (Team BRM) and another 0.1774s up on James Davison (BRM).

The 20-minute session started on a very dirty track with lap times initially beyond two minutes, but dropping into the 1:54s for the second flyers, when Golding moved to the top.

Rubens Barrichello (BRM) moved the benchmark to the 1:53s bracket next time around, before Randle took up top spot with a 1:52.1358s on his fourth timed lap.

He remained at the head of the field with a 1:51.9010s on his fifth lap, as the gains in lap speed started to taper off.

Davison, Randle, and then Davison again moved the benchmark down to 1:51.3783s before Golding set what would be the very best time of the session in the 17th minute.

Randle subsequently moved to a 1:51.2009s, pushing Davison back to third.

Zane Goddard (BRM), who is not on Virgin Australia Supercars Championship duties this weekend, ended up fourth at 1:51.6765s, from Williams Formula 1 reserve Jack Aitken (BRM) and Tim Macrow (Tim Macrow Racing), the latter of whom was first outside the 1:51s.

Barrichello finished seventh, from Luis Leeds (GRM), Alexandre Premat (GRM), and Giancarlo Fisichella (GRM).

Fisichella was hamstrung by front wing damage to Car #38, which became apparent after an off at Turn 9/Turn 10 in the early stages but may have then contributed to another at the same complex in the final minute of the session.

Golding also had an off-track excursion at one point, while Antonio Astuti stopped on track with the chequered flag out and puffs of smoke coming from the back of the #39 Tim Macrow Racing entry.

Qualifying takes place at 15:10 local time/AEDT.

Results: Practice