Moffat, who moved across from Cameron Waters’ Monster Mustang to the Castrol Ford with Thomas Randle this year, set a session-best 1:50.7387s in the #55 car.

Lee Holdsworth was second fastest in the Team 18 Chevrolet Camaro that he shares with David Reynolds, 0.1864s adrift of the quickest lap.

There were some surprises up and down the order, namely the three wildcards that occupied third, fourth, and fifth.

Tickford Racing’s Rylan Gray was the best of them in the #5 Mustang ahead of Aaron Seton in fourth for Matt Stone Racing in the #35 Camaro and Zach Bates in fifth with Triple Eight in the #888 Camaro.

The top 10 was rounded out by Declan Fraser (with Andre Heimgartner), Mark Winterbottom (with Cameron Waters), Jayden Ojeda (with Ryan Wood), Harri Jones (with Anton De Pasquale), and Fabian Coulthard (with Chaz Mostert).

For Moffat, it was a much-needed boost to start his Saturday after crashing out in the Trans Am race earlier in the morning.

“Certainly being up the top end of the timesheets is nicer than the other way around,” said Moffat.

“It’s quite different today because the wind has flipped 180 degrees, so there’s a pretty reasonable headwind into Turn 1 today, so that has changed the balance in a few of the corners.

“For me personally, my Trans Am commitments are going terribly. Not through any lack of effort or anything like that, but just having a bit of a battle on the Trans Am side of things.

“The Castrol Mustang is nice. It’s speedy. Still a couple of areas that we can improve the car to make it a bit nicer to drive. Speed is always important and it seems like we’ve got some.”

The collision between Whincup and Pye meant the #1 Triple Eight Camaro completed just two laps after the crash during the Safety Car rehearsal.

Remarkably, the #88 Triple Eight Camaro was undamaged despite Whincup launching into the air off the back of Pye. The seven-time champion wound up 15th and 0.8993s off the pace.

Results: Repco Supercars Championship AirTouch 500 at The Bend, Practice 4