Richards tops first co-driver practice

Reigning Bathurst winner Steven Richards edged DJR Team Penske’s Tony D’Alberto to the fastest time in the first of the day’s two co-driver practice sessions at Sandown.

The co-drivers are doing the bulk of the running today with two 30 minute sessions dedicated to the part-timers.

D’Alberto led much of the session before Richards clocked his 1:09.74s best with less than two minutes remaining.

Richards said he had been concentrating on finding a race balance that looks after the Dunlop soft tyre, which is being used at the Sandown 500 for the first time.

“The second set of tyres were quite decent and the car feels good,” said Richards.

“We’re just trying to get our eye in and do some longer running with more of a race car.

“There’s no question that tyre life is going to be an issue on the weekend so we’re focussing on that.”

D’Alberto had been the first into the 1:09s at the halfway mark but was unable to improve from there.

“We had a problem on one of our runs where we tried something and something was wrong with the car,” he said.

“So we lost a little bit of time and just got jumped at the end. I was at the top for most of the session but just got done.”

Warren Luff put Garth Tander’s Holden Racing Team Commodore third ahead of Dean Canto, who dragged Mark Winterbottom’s Ford through the gravel at Turn 9 in the closing stages.

Jonathon Webb had an early off at Turn 1 before clocking fifth fastest in the Tekno Holden, while Russell Ingall completed the top six aboard Rick Kelly’s Sengled Nissan.

Volvo’s James Golding had an early near miss with the Turn 4 exit wall on the way to ninth, one place behind team-mate David Wall.

Fellow rookies Matt Campbell, Richie Stanaway and Chris van der Drift were 20th, 24th and 26th respectively.

One second covered the top 25 drivers, while van der Drift – who enjoyed just a single test day following a late deal with Erebus – was a further second away from the pace.

The session included a single red flag called with four minutes remaining after Ash Walsh’s Freightliner Holden stopped at Turn 10 with suspected electrical issues.

Walsh was able to return back to the pits, ending the session 10th.

The second co-driver session completes the day’s Supercars practice action from 1635 local time.

Result: Virgin Australia Supercars Championship Wilson Security Sandown 500 Practice 2 (Co Drivers)