V8 Supercars veteran Russell Ingall has ended the opening day of the Coates Hire Ipswich 300 with the fastest time.

Ingall, who has this weekend equalled third-placed Peter Brock on the all-time ATCC/V8 Supercars Championship event starts list with his 212th appearance, blasted to the top of the times as teams fitted their best sets of pre-marked soft compound tyres in the final minutes of the day’s fourth and final session.

The Supercheap Holden’s time of 1:09.68s came with just five of the 20 minutes remaining, and undercut Craig Lowndes’ previous benchmark by 0.19s.

Penultimate session pace-setter Jamie Whincup led the way through the middle phase of the final outing before late efforts from Lee Holdsworth and David Reynolds completed the TeamVodafone driver’s slide back to fifth.

Alex Premat, Tim Slade, Shane van Gisbergen, Steven Johnson and Jonathon Webb rounded out the top 10.

Championship contenders Will Davison and Mark Winterbottom were two drivers left wanting for grip in a lowly 11th and 24th fastest respectively.

Jacques Villeneuve moved to within 1.8s of the pace in 26th, while the Holden’s of David Wall and Michael Caruso both failed to turn a lap.

Wall’s car completed a grand total of just 12 laps for the day after oil leak issues had plagued the Wilson Security-backed entry across the first three sessions.

Fujitsu Racing owner Garry Rogers told Speedcafe.com that his team had been happy enough with its #34 entry not to bother with the final session, while Caruso declined to comment on the non-appearance.

A fifth practice session will take place tomorrow morning followed by a 20 minute qualifying session and a 140km race.

CLICK HERE for Speedcafe.com’s Practice 3 report and results

CLICK HERE for Speedcafe.com’s Practice 2 report and results

CLICK HERE for Speedcafe.com’s Practice 1 report and results

See below for the full session result

See below for Speedcafe.com’s Coates Hire 300 Race Guide

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