Van Gisbergen fastest in Townsville Practice 1

Shane van Gisbergen has set the pace as the three Triple Eight Holdens finished in the top four in the first practice session for the Watpac Townsville 400.

He and fellow title contender David Reynolds moved up the timesheets in the final two minutes of the 40-minute affair to finish first and second, 0.0768s apart.

They usurped Craig Lowndes, who ended up another 0.1658s behind, while Jamie Whincup ended up fourth-fastest.

Whincup was fastest until the 34th minute in the #1 Red Bull HRT ZB Commodore, at which time he had improved his first sector multiple times but not been able to lap any faster in total than his second flyer.

Lowndes then moved from ninth to first with a 1:12.9126s which remained his fastest despite a subsequent front-end tweak to the #888 Autobarn ZB Commodore.

Whincup did improve in the final three minutes to briefly lead again before he was bumped back by van Gisbergen’s (#97 ZB Commodore) 1:12.6700s and then Reynolds’ effort.

“It’s just practice, but we had decent tyres,” said van Gisbergen.

“(The) Car felt pretty good, we’re all up there from the start so that’s a good sign. Now just keep up with the track.”

Reynolds had a minor drama early on when a loose fitting caused a power steering failure for the #9 Erebus Penrite ZB Commodore, but the last-start winner was back among the front-runners by the halfway point.

“We had a little small steering failure,” confirmed Reynolds.

“(The) Steering went heavy so we came in and reconnected it and re-bled it. It was alright, just lost the first couple of runs.”

Rick Kelly sat as high as second before settling in fifth in the #15 Castrol Nissan Altima, one position ahead of James Courtney (#25 Mobil 1 Boost Mobile ZB Commodore).

Chaz Mostert was first of the Ford in seventh in the #55 Supercheap Auto FGX Falcon, while the top 10 was rounded out by Andre Heimgartner (#7 Plus Fitness Nissan Altima), Scott Pye (#2 Walkinshaw Andretti United ZB Commodore), and Lee Holdsworth (#18 Preston Hire ZB Commodore).

Jack Le Brocq (#19 Tekno Autosports ZB Commodore) ended up 11th having sat third during the middle of the session.

Championship leader Scott McLaughlin was only 12th in the #17 Shell V-Power FGX Falcon while team-mate Fabian Coulthard (#12 FGX Falcon) was 10 positions further back.

“We just ran the one (tyre) set and had an idea of where the track was at the first couple of runs,” said McLaughlin.

“We did our time and then did probably a 15-lap stint there.

“It’s important and obviously we know the degradation over the last few rounds has been a bit different. It felt alright.”

Mark Winterbottom (#5 The Bottle-O FGX Falcon) was 21st, rounding out the Tickford Racing contingent.

The session ran uninterrupted, with a scrape of the wall for James Golding (#34 Wilson Security ZB Commodore) the most noteworthy incident aside from Reynolds’ early problem.

A second 40-minute practice session is due to start at 1500 local time/AEST.

Results: Supercars Watpac Townsville 400 Practice 1