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.
Buy tickets
“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
| 1 | Fujitsu Racing GRM | Alexandre Premat | Holden Commodore VF | 1:29.2246 | |
| 2 | TEKNO Team VIP Petfoods | Shane Van Gisbergen | Holden Commodore VF | 1:29.2292 | 0:00.0046 |
| 3 | Team HIFLEX | Tony D’Alberto | Holden Commodore VF | 1:29.2323 | 0:00.0077 |
| 4 | Norton Hornets | Michael Caruso | Nissan Altima | 1:29.3687 | 0:00.1441 |
| 5 | Irwin Racing | Lee Holdsworth | Mercedes E63 AMG | 1:29.3777 | 0:00.1531 |
| 6 | Fujitsu Racing GRM | Scott McLaughlin | Holden Commodore VF | 1:29.4335 | 0:00.2089 |
| 7 | Pepsi Max Crew FPR Ford | Will Davison | Ford Falcon FG | 1:29.4754 | 0:00.2508 |
| 8 | Red Bull Racing Australia | Jamie Whincup | Holden Commodore VF | 1:29.4879 | 0:00.2633 |
| 9 | Jack Daniel’s Racing | Todd Kelly | Nissan Altima | 1:29.5979 | 0:00.3733 |
| 10 | Wilson Security Racing | Chaz Mostert | Ford Falcon FG | 1:29.6443 | 0:00.4197 |
| 11 | Norton Hornets | James Moffat | Nissan Altima | 1:29.6783 | 0:00.4537 |
| 12 | Holden Racing Team | Nick Percat | Holden Commodore VF | 1:29.6871 | 0:00.4625 |
| 13 | Heavy Haulage Australia Racing | Tim Slade | Mercedes E63 AMG | 1:29.7327 | 0:00.5081 |
| 14 | Team BOC | Jason Bright | Holden Commodore VF | 1:29.8775 | 0:00.6529 |
| 15 | Red Bull Racing Australia | Craig Lowndes | Holden Commodore VF | 1:29.9939 | 0:00.7693 |
| 16 | TEKNO Team Darrell Lea | Jonathon Webb | Holden Commodore VF | 1:30.0149 | 0:00.7903 |
| 17 | Wilson Security Racing | David Wall | Holden Commodore VF | 1:30.0347 | 0:00.8101 |
| 18 | Holden Racing Team | Garth Tander | Holden Commodore VF | 1:30.0694 | 0:00.8448 |
| 19 | ekol Racing | Scott Pye | Holden Commodore VF | 1:30.1487 | 0:00.9241 |
| 20 | The Bottle-O FPR Ford | David Reynolds | Ford Falcon FG | 1:30.1512 | 0:00.9266 |
| 21 | Wilson Security Racing | Tim Blanchard | Ford Falcon FG | 1:30.2385 | 0:01.0139 |
| 22 | Pepsi Max Crew FPR Ford | Mark Winterbottom | Ford Falcon FG | 1:30.2933 | 0:01.0687 |
| 23 | Jack Daniel’s Racing | Rick Kelly | Nissan Altima | 1:30.3030 | 0:01.0784 |
| 24 | Supercheap Auto Racing | Russell Ingall | Holden Commodore VF | 1:30.4393 | 0:01.2147 |
| 25 | Dodo Insurance Racing | Dean Fiore | Holden Commodore VF | 1:30.5584 | 0:01.3338 |
| 26 | SP Tools Racing | Maro Engel | Mercedes E63 AMG | 1:30.5981 | 0:01.3735 |
| 27 | Lockwood Racing | Fabian Coulthard | Holden Commodore VF | 1:30.6161 | 0:01.3915 |
| 28 | Jeld-wen FPR Ford | Alex Davison | Ford Falcon FG | 1:30.8259 | 0:01.6013 |
