Alexandre Premat finished on top of the time sheets in Practice 2 after a crash from Lee Holdsworth brought an early end to the session.

Premat edged ahead of team-mate and Practice 1 pace-setter Scott McLaughlin at the halfway mark of the day’s first full field hit-out.

The Frenchman continued to remain fastest until Lee Holdsworth clouted the Turn 7 barriers 10 minutes later.

With damage to the front-right of the Mercedes stranding Holdsworth on the circuit, the session could not be restarted before the 30 minutes elapsed.

Premat pace-setting performance comes a year after being pulled from his Fujitsu GRM Holden in the opening leg of last year’s event with severe dehydration.

“I really like this race track,” he noted post-session.

“Last year I was cooking in the car so I have unfinished business. Hopefully everything will be good this year.”

Holdsworth meanwhile admitted that he’d used too much kerb in the first part of the 6/7 chicane, which saw the Irwin entry launch onto two-weels and eventually clip the Turn 7 apex tyre bundle.

“It didn’t feel like too hard a hit fortunately and it doesn’t look as bad as I had thought initially,” he added.

“Hopefully we can get back out today at some stage and keep working on the car (set-up) for qualifying.”

Shane van Gisbergen was second fastest from Tony D’Alberto, Michael Caruso, Holdsworth and McLaughlin.

Times proved only marginally quicker than in the bottom 50 percent Practice 1 as track temperatures build under sunny skies.

Two further 30 minute sessions will complete the Friday running.

See below for the full Practice 2 result