Red Bull HRT sets pace at The Bend

Shane van Gisbergen beat team-mate Jamie Whincup by half a second as they finished first and second in practice on the opening day of the OTR SuperSprint at The Bend.

The Red Bull Holden Racing Team duo and Practice 1 fast man Tim Slade were the only three drivers to drop under 1:50s bracket during their green tyre runs in the second 45-minute session of the day.

Van Gisbergen spent almost the entirety of Practice 2 in the lead having reeled out a 1:50.1652s on his first flyer.

That time stood up as the benchmark until the #14 Freightliner ZB Commodore took on new tyres and Slade clocked a 1:49.7093s.

Van Gisbergen was on his hot lap at the same time, however, and went nearly a second faster again with a 1:48.7499 in the #97 ZB Commodore.

Whincup then split them with a 1:49.3231s, 0.5732s slower than his team-mate.

Chaz Mostert was another half-second off Slade’s pace as he ended up the fastest Ford driver for the second session in a row in the #55 Supercheap Auto FGX Falcon.

“There’s still a fair bit left and obviously there is; there is no way we’re genuinely a second faster,” said van Gisbergen.

“The track’s tough, there’s probably people making mistakes. There’s probably half a second in driving and a fair bit left in car.

“We’ll see the evolution of that over the weekend.”

Nick Percat (#8 Mobil ZB Commodore) finished fifth but was the only driver in the top 15 to not improve in his final run.

Three Nissans followed in the form of Rick Kelly (#15 Castrol Altima), Simona de Silvestro (#78 Harvey Norman Altima), and Andre Heimgartner (#7 Plus Fitness Altima).

Mark Winterbottom (#5 The Bottle-O FGX Falcon) and Scott Pye (#2 Boost Mobile ZB Commodore) rounded out the top 10.

Scott McLaughlin (#17 Shell V-Power FGX Falcon) ended up only 12th after sliding off the dirt exiting Turn 13 during his green tyre run.

Craig Lowndes was seen sliding or running off-road several times in the #888 Autobarn ZB Commodore on his way to 27th, nearly 3.7s off the pace.

There will be a third 45-minute practice session for the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship field tomorrow at 1035 local time/1105 AEST.

Results: Supercars Practice 2