Van Gisbergen completes practice sweep

Shane van Gisbergen completed a clean sweep of Friday practice after topping the third hit-out at Sydney Olympic Park.

The New Zealander once again showed his class at the challenging street circuit as he fired in a 1:27.76s effort late in the 30 minute session.

Having dominated the first two practice outings, his rivals managed to close the gap with Brad Jones Racing’s Jason Bright just 0.08s adrift of the Tekno Autosports driver.

Jamie Whincup surged to the top of the timesheets as the session entered the final minutes but Van Gisbergen and Bright’s late efforts saw the six-time champion demoted to third.

Despite a late brush with the tyre wall, David Reynolds posted the fourth fastest time ahead of Volvo’s Scott McLaughlin, who enjoyed a spell at the top of the times.

James Courtney emerged as the top Walkinshaw runner in sixth ahead of Nissan’s Michael Caruso, who was one of a group drivers to head the times during the session.

Title contender Craig Lowndes finished the hit-out in eighth, while Scott Pye and Erebus Motorsport’s Will Davison rounded out the top 10.

Championship leader Mark Winterbottom ended Practice 3 in P11 although the Prodrive driver elected not to use a green set of tyres.

The session was littered with several incidents with the most serious involving Chris Pither.

The Super Black Racing driver clattered into the tyre wall at the chicane which brought out the red flags with 22 minutes remaining.

James Moffat also collected the tyre wall at the chicane once the session resumed causing significant damage to his Nissan Altima.

Both Pither and Moffat were forced to spend the remaining minutes in the garage.

Result: V8 Supercars Coates Hire Sydney 500 Practice 3