Scott McLaughlin sets pace in Practice 3 in Darwin

Scott McLaughlin has again set the pace in the final practice session at the BetEasy Darwin Triple Crown as he all but matched his Practice 2 effort.

The Shell V-Power Racing driver clocked a 1:06.1184s in the #17 Mustang, just under four hundredths of a second slower than he went the afternoon prior, leaving him 0.2110s ahead of David Reynolds in the #9 Penrite ZB Commodore.

Third-placed Jamie Whincup split the two Erebus Motorsport entries with Anton De Pasquale 0.3541s slower than McLaughlin’s best, while Shane van Gisbergen was a late mover to ninth after a mid-session front anti-rollbar change in the #97 Red Bull HRT ZB Commodore.

De Pasquale was immediately into the mid-sixes in the #99 ZB Commodore with a 1:06.5968s on his first flyer and a 1:06.5666s next time around.

He stayed on top until McLaughlin set what would be fastest of Practice 3 in the ninth minute of 30-minute session, with the DJR Team Penske pilot not improving on nearly new tyres for his final run.

Whincup was 14th just prior to the chequered flag before taking his #88 Triple Eight ZB Commodore around Hidden Valley Raceway at a time 0.0346s slower than Reynolds’ best.

Tickford’s best was Cameron Waters (#6 Monster Energy Mustang) in fifth at 1:06.4931s, one position ahead of Kelly Racing’s best in Andre Heimgartner (#7 Plus Fitness Altima).

Scott Pye (#2 Mobil 1 Mega ZB Commodore) and Tim Slade (#14 Freightliner ZB Commodore) were next, both within half a second of McLaughlin.

Both Triple Eight cars took new rear springs as soon as they finished their first runs, while #97 also had a new anti-rollbar installed around halfway into the session.

Van Gisbergen jumped from 18th to ninth, 0.5237s slower than McLaughlin, with the chequered flag out, while Jack Le Brocq (#19 Truck Assist ZB Commodore) rounded out the top 10.

“We were just a day behind,” said van Gisbergen.

“We made some huge changes overnight and just reverse what we’ve done. I haven’t been really comfortable with the car, but back to old school sort of way and the car was fine, it’s really good, but a little bit slow.

“Day behind, but hopefully we can make some tunes for quali. We’ve got an extra run in quali (ie starting in Part 1). Hopefully we can make it better.”

Chaz Mostert (#55 Supercheap Auto Mustang) was 11th, while Fabian Coulthard had an off at Turn 1 on his way to 15th in the #12 DJR Team Penske Mustang.

The latter was not concerned despite being 0.6101s off the pace.

“I’m actually not too stressed,” said Coulthard.

“We tried a couple of things. We had a good run yesterday in P2. I think (when) we put some tyres on it, we’ll be fine.”

Armor All Qualifying for Race 15 starts at 1315 local time/1345 AEST.

Results: Practice 3