Lee Holdsworth has beaten Chaz Mostert to Practice 2 honours as the pace dropped into the 2:15s in Round 3 of the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series at Mount Panorama.

In a frantic end to the second half-hour session of the day for the hot hatches, Mostert grabbed top spot after the chequered flag with the first ‘15’ of the weekend, only to lose it when Holdsworth came through and clocked the second.

The margin between the pace-setting Ashley Seward Motorsport Alfa Romeo’s 2:15.8092s and the lead Melbourne Performance Centre Audi’s best lap was 0.1890s, with Dylan O’Keeffe 0.2231s further adrift in third in a Garry Rogers Motorsport Renault.

Under sunny skies, with the mercury in the mid-20s, it was John Martin who opened the batting with a 2:34.8046s in the #24 Wall Racing Honda.

Predictably, the benchmark lap time dropped rapidly in the opening minutes as Holdsworth moved it to a 2:20.8117s on his second flyer, Jordan Cox (Alfa Romeo) to a 2:18.3618s on his third, and Mostert to a 2:18.2482s on his fourth.

Holdsworth became the first driver to beat Cox’s Practice 1 pace-setter when he clocked a 2:17.5879s on his fifth lap, shortly before Cox himself rolled out a 2:16.5868s.

Holdsworth then closed to a 2:17.0947s and Mostert to a 2:17.0577s at the end of their first runs, and the former started his second run with a 2:16.9151s.

O’Keeffe moved into second with a 2:16.6926s before Holdsworth was back on top with a 2:16.1023s on the second flyer of his second run.

O’Keeffe crept closer with a 2:16.2213s that would be his best inside the final two minutes of the session, setting the fastest first and third sectors in the process.

Mostert could not crack a fastest sector anywhere but was better across the full 6.213km in nailing a 2:15.9982s as drivers were finishing their final laps, but Holdsworth had just a little bit more.

Notably, the #10 Alfa Romeo was fastest in Sector 2, which runs across the top of the Mount Panorama Motor Racing Circuit.

Aaron Cameron saw to it that there would be four makes in the top four with a 2:16.4592s in his Peugeot, while Cox rounded out the top five with a 2:16.5868s.

Garth Tander was sixth with a 2:17.1939s in his Audi, ahead of Jay Hanson (Alfa Romeo), Martin, Tony D’Alberto (Honda), and Zac Soutar (Honda).

Qualifying, which is just a single session this weekend, starts tomorrow morning at 07:40 local time/AEDT.

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Results: Practice 2