Shane van Gisbergen made the best of a late scramble to finish almost half a second clear of the field in final practice at the NRMA Sydney 500.

The first red flag of the weekend, brought out due to a crash for Lee Holdsworth, saw the session stopped with four minutes remaining.

Van Gisbergen had been atop the order at the time of the incident, before being temporarily displaced by Jamie Whincup, Scott McLaughlin and Scott Pye in quick succession after the restart.

The Tekno Autosports Holden was however one of several cars to get two laps in on his green tyres, with the Kiwi’s second effort of 1:27.63s a full 0.42s clear of the field.

Van Gisbergen won last year’s Sunday race in Sydney and has strong form across the street circuits this year, but was typically downplaying his pace ahead of qualifying.

“I don’t think everyone got the best run with the red flag,” he said.

“We crossed the line with a second to go for that last lap. We’ll see what happens when everyone gets a good go at it in qualifying.”

Pye, David Reynolds, McLaughlin and Whincup completed the top five.

The Friday pace-setting Walkinshaw Holdens slipped down to sixth (Tim Slade), seventh (James Courtney) and 10th (Garth Tander) in Practice 4.

Erebus Motorsport meanwhile has a heavily damaged Mercedes to repair before qualifying.

Holdsworth made heavy right-front contact with the concrete at Turn 5 after suffering a mechanical failure while on a warm-up lap.

Marcos Ambrose’s challenging V8 Supercars return meanwhile continued, with the Xbox Ford ending the session at the bottom of the order.

The two-time champion’s best lap proved 0.2s than he had managed on Friday, but was still 1.7s away from Van Gisbergen’s hot pace.

The first of two back-to-back qualifying sessions for Races 36 and 37 will get underway at 1115 local time.

Result: V8 Supercars Practice 4, Sydney

1

Team Tekno VIP Petfoods

Shane Van Gisbergen

Holden Commodore VF

01:27.63

2

Wilson Security Racing

Scott Pye

Ford Falcon FG

01:28.05

00:00.42

3

The Bottle-O Racing Team

David Reynolds

Ford Falcon FG

01:28.11

00:00.47

4

Valvoline Racing GRM

Scott McLaughlin

Volvo S60

01:28.18

00:00.55

5

Red Bull Racing Australia

Jamie Whincup

Holden Commodore VF

01:28.19

00:00.56

6

Supercheap Auto Racing

Tim Slade

Holden Commodore VF

01:28.19

00:00.56

7

Holden Racing Team

James Courtney

Holden Commodore VF

01:28.22

00:00.59

8

Red Bull Racing Australia

Craig Lowndes

Holden Commodore VF

01:28.26

00:00.63

9

Lockwood Racing

Fabian Coulthard

Holden Commodore VF

01:28.32

00:00.69

10

Holden Racing Team

Garth Tander

Holden Commodore VF

01:28.36

00:00.73

11

Walkinshaw Racing

Nick Percat

Holden Commodore VF

01:28.39

00:00.76

12

Ford Pepsi Max Crew

Mark Winterbottom

Ford Falcon FG

01:28.45

00:00.82

13

Team BOC

Jason Bright

Holden Commodore VF

01:28.47

00:00.84

14

Norton Hornets

Michael Caruso

Nissan Altima

01:28.68

00:01.05

15

Jack Daniel's Racing

Todd Kelly

Nissan Altima

01:28.75

00:01.12

16

Erebus Motorsport V8

Will Davison

Mercedes E63 AMG

01:28.77

00:01.14

17

Norton Hornets

James Moffat

Nissan Altima

01:28.88

00:01.25

18

Jack Daniel's Racing

Rick Kelly

Nissan Altima

01:28.88

00:01.25

19

Erebus Motorsport V8

Lee Holdsworth

Mercedes E63 AMG

01:28.94

00:01.31

20

Ford Pepsi Max Crew

Chaz Mostert

Ford Falcon FG

01:28.94

00:01.31

21

Team Advam/GB

Dale Wood

Holden Commodore VF

01:29.07

00:01.44

22

Repair Management Aust Racing

Russell Ingall

Holden Commodore VF

01:29.10

00:01.47

23

Wilson Security Racing

David Wall

Ford Falcon FG

01:29.12

00:01.48

24

Valvoline Racing GRM

Robert Dahlgren

Volvo S60

01:29.12

00:01.49

25

Team JELD-WEN

Jack Perkins

Ford Falcon FG

01:29.36

00:01.73

26

XBOX Racing DJR

Marcos Ambrose

Ford Falcon FG

01:29.40

00:01.77