Chris Pither has edged Macauley Jones to the fastest lap in the practice session for rookie and second-year drivers at the Robson Civil Projects Townsville SuperSprint.

The Team Sydney driver clocked what would stand up as the best lap of the 20-minute hit-out, a 1:13.5234s, late in his first run around the Reid Park Street Circuit.

Jones had been the previous fast man with a 1:13.6177s on his second flyer of the session in the #3 CoolDrive ZB Commodore, the first lap to beat the fastest time from the corresponding session of a week ago.

The Brad Jones Racing driver would then extract a 1:13.6140s on his second run.

Pither threatened to move his own benchmark in the final five minutes, achieving the fastest first sector in the #22 Coca-Cola ZB Commodore.

The lap ended with a time of 1:13.7525s, which was still better than anyone else other than Jones logged during the session.

Matt Stone Racing’s Garry Jacobson (#35 Yellow Cover ZB Commodore) and Jake Kostecki (#34 Unit ZB Commodore) ended up third and fifth with a 1:13.8173s and 1:13.8502s respectively.

They were split by Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Bryce Fullwood (#2 Mobil 1 Middy’s ZB Commodore) on a 1:13.8444s, while Jack Smith’s best from his #4 SCT Logistics ZB Commodore was a 1:14.0804s.

All six drivers ran throughout on soft tyres, the only compound in play this weekend in Townsville.

The first practice session open to all 24 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship entries starts at 10:00 local time/AEST.

Results: Rookie Practice