Craig Lowndes has emerged fastest from a record breaking Practice 5 session at Symmons Plains.

The top seven drivers all circulated underneath the previous practice lap record during the 30 minute session, with Lowndes setting a best of 51.03s on his 22nd and final lap.

Mark Winterbottom also improved on his final tour to be just 0.02s slower than the TeamVodafone driver, while Tim Slade, Lee Holdsworth, Jamie Whincup, James Courtney, David Reynolds, Jonathon Webb, Tony D’Alberto and Rick Kelly rounded out the top 10.

The session was punctuated by successive red flags at its halfway point, with the first brought out when James Moffat beached his Team Norton DJR Falcon in the Turn 4 gravel.

Will Davison and Jamie Whincup both speared off at Turn 6 upon the resumption of the session – the championship leaders appearing to have been caught out by gravel dropped on the road by Moffat.

Whincup was able to skip through the gravel trap and continue, while Davison’s Falcon came to a stop with its front bumper millimetres from the tyre wall.

Both cars returned to the track soon after the restart, with the TeamVodafone driver immediately shooting to the top of the order.

Davison endured a more fraught time of it over the final 10 minutes – yesterday’s winner surviving a wild moment at the exit of Turn 7 on his way to 11th fastest.

Qualifying will get underway at 1300 local time.

See below for the full Practice 5 result