Reynolds fastest, Lowndes suffers big shunt

David Reynolds topped the times in an eventful opening practice session at the WD-40 Phillip Island 500 which ended with a big shunt for Craig Lowndes.

The Erebus Motorsport driver lit up the timing screens in the dying minutes of the 40 minute hit-out after fitting a much greener tyre for the final runs.

Reynolds posted a 1:30.84s which demoted Red Bull HRT’s Shane van Gisbergen, who was among a group of drivers to improve following a change of rubber.

The Kiwi was 0.0011s adrift of the Erebus Commodore.

However, the session came to frightening end when Lowndes was involved in a high speed crash on the entry to Lukey Heights.

The Triple Eight drivers appeared to suffer a right front tyre failure which sent him into the barriers at speed. Lowndes managed to climb from the damaged #888 wreck without issue.

The crash occurred just seconds after DJR Team Penske’s Fabian Coulthard suffered a tyre failure which sent the Ford driver off on the exit of Stoner.

Nissan Motorsport’s Todd Kelly emerged third fastest ahead of Will Davison, who impressed in his first run in the repaired Tekno Autosports Commodore after suffering a back injury in Tasmania.

“There is a lot of load through your body here, I could feel it in the high speed stuff but hopefully it will just sort of wake the body up a bit and it will only get better,” said Davison after his first run.

“The car is good straight out of the truck and it is an amazing job by the team. I was pretty quick straight up and hopefully we can just improve lap by lap.”

The Preston Hire Holden of Lee Holdsworth was fifth fastest ahead of James Courtney (Mobil 1 HSV Racing) and Tim Slade (Brad Jones Racing).

Coulthard ended the session in eighth despite an off in front of DJRTP team-mate Scott McLaughlin, who had held the top spot earlier in the session.

Chaz Mostert was the best placed Prodrive driver as he rounded out the top 10 ahead of Jamie Whincup and Scott Pye, who topped the times at the halfway mark.

The session was red flagged twice with the first stoppage occurring with 23 minutes remaining when Cameron Waters slid off the road and become stranded on the exit of the Southern Loop.

Nissan Motorsport’s Simona de Silvestro mirrored Waters by going off at the same corner which brought out the second red flag with 18 minutes left on the clock.

The Virgin Australia Supercars Championship field will return to the track for another 40 minutes session at 1515 AEST.

Results: Virgin Australia Supercars Championship, Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit: Practice One