Jonathon Webb has pipped David Reynolds to the fastest time in the opening V8 Supercars practice session at the ITM400 Hamilton.
Reynolds sat atop the times for the majority of the half hour session, before Webb eclipsed The Bottle-O Racing Falcon driver with a 1:23.62s effort in the final minutes.
Reynolds ended the session – contested by drivers in the bottom 50 percent of the championship standings – in second place, having improved his best time in each of his three runs.
Tony D’Alberto, Michael Patrizi, Russell Ingall, James Moffat, James Courtney, Dean Fiore, Jason Bright, and Taz Douglas rounded out the top 10.
Local hero Greg Murphy was 12th fastest in the Pepsi Max Crew Commodore on return from the back surgery that kept him out of the recent Symmons Plains event.
The pace-setters set their times on pre-marked soft tyres, with teams in the bottom 50 percent allowed to bring three sets of previously used tyres of either compound this weekend. The remainder of the field, which will take to the track later this afternoon, will have two sets to play with.
The tyre situation helped Webb lap 0.4s quicker than the fastest time set by Todd Kelly in Practice 1 last year.
Frenchman Alexandre Premat failed to set a representative time after contact with the Turn 7 exit wall caused minor damage to the left-front corner of the Fujitsu Racing GRM Commodore.
The second of today’s four practice sessions will kick-off at 1205 local time.
See below for the full session result
| 1 | Tekno Autosports | Jonathon Webb | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:23.6170 | |
| 2 | The Bottle-O Racing Team | David Reynolds | Ford Falcon FG | 1:23.7521 | 0:00.1351 |
| 3 | Tony D’Alberto Racing | Tony D’Alberto | Ford Falcon FG | 1:23.8125 | 0:00.1955 |
| 4 | Tekno Autosports | Michael Patrizi | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:23.9896 | 0:00.3726 |
| 5 | Supercheap Auto Racing | Russell Ingall | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:24.0441 | 0:00.4271 |
| 6 | Team Norton DJR | James Moffat | Ford Falcon FG | 1:24.5260 | 0:00.9090 |
| 7 | Holden Racing Team | James Courtney | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:24.6364 | 0:01.0194 |
| 8 | Jim Beam Racing | Dean Fiore | Ford Falcon FG | 1:24.7937 | 0:01.1767 |
| 9 | Team BOC | Jason Bright | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:24.8994 | 0:01.2824 |
| 10 | Team iSelect | Taz Douglas | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:24.9216 | 0:01.3046 |
| 11 | Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing | Karl Reindler | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:24.9499 | 0:01.3329 |
| 12 | Pepsi Max Crew | Greg Murphy | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:25.1099 | 0:01.4929 |
| 13 | Wilson Security Racing | David Wall | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:25.7346 | 0:02.1176 |
| 14 | Fujitsu Racing GRM | Alexandre Premat | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:44.7191 | 0:21.1021 |
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