Tim Slade fastest in second Clipsal practice

Tim Slade put Walkinshaw Racing atop the time sheets in the second V8 Supercars practice session of the weekend at the Clipsal 500.

Slade’s best of 1:21.15s came at the end of a three-lap spell during his second of three runs.

Practice 1 pace-setter Shane van Gisbergen moved to second in the dying stages to end the session just 0.06s adrift.

The fastest times were almost half a second quicker than those seen during the morning.

Slade admitted that he had good tyres to use in the session, which marked just his second official hit-out since switching from Erebus Motorsport to the Holden team.

“It’s going fairly well so far but it’s only practice and you don’t know where everyone else is at,” he said.

Rick Kelly continued Nissan’s strong form in third, running three laps within a tenth of his eventual best.

Fabian Coulthard, Garth Tander, Jamie Whincup, Michael Caruso, Todd Kelly, Jason Bright and Craig Lowndes completed the top 10.

All six Fords again missed the top 10, with Mark Winterbottom leading the Blue Oval’s contenders in 11th.

His session included an off at Turn 11 that was blamed on low front-tyre temperatures.

It was a tougher second session for the Volvos as team-mates Robert Dahlgren and Scott McLaughlin ended up 20th and 23rd respectively.

The latter’s S60 broke an anti roll-bar adjuster during the run and ended up a second away from the pace.

The 30 minute session again ran without a red flag stoppage.

See below for the session result