Waters tops first Gold Coast 500 practice

The Tickford Racing driver rebounded from a tough Bathurst for the Mustang runners to record a 1:11.3972s best with the chequered flag flying in the 40-minute session.

That knocked fellow Ford runner Chaz Mostert from the top and was enough to withstand subsequent laps from James Courtney and Andre Heimgartner.

Heimgartner, Courtney and Mostert filled second through fourth at the finish ahead of Triple Eight duo Will Brown and Broc Feeney.

The Red Bull Ampol Camaros briefly held the top two spots with five minutes remaining but did not improve with their final laps.

Richie Stanaway was seventh following a session that included a long race run for the #26 Grove Mustang and an unusual pit lane incident.

TV cameras captured Stanaway clattering into a spare wheel and tyre as he swung into the team garage.

“He’s been setting the lap record from getting to the fast lane into the garage all year,” noted commentator Mark Skaife.

Anton De Pasquale, James Golding and Matt Payne completed the top 10, with Payne having set the early pace.

Payne’s car is being engineered by Grove technical director Grant McPherson today, with the Kiwi’s regular running mate Matt Bell sidelined by food poisoning.

The session was run in sunny and windy conditions at the Surfers Paradise street circuit.

As usual, the timing screens lit up with kerb hopping infringements – the electronic sensors in the beach chicane resulting in many laps being deleted.

“I must have got about 15 kerb strikes… and every time it was something slightly different,” said Heimgartner.

“It takes a while to get into your rhythm. Because you’re going in there so fast and it’s such a hectic moment, in the moment it’s hard to really analyse what’s going on.

“Your actions three or four kerbs down the road get triggered by what you do at the start. Sometimes you don’t even know which one you over-stepped.”

Championship leader Brown was among those to lose his best time to a kerb strike.

“I was pretty happy with my last run but got a kerb hop,” he said.

“I think there’s a lot of guys down there that probably went a bit faster than what’s on the screen but they got a kerb hop on their lap. It’s going to be super hard in quali.”

Rookie Jaxon Evans ended up at the foot of the times having completed just nine laps amid an unusual gearbox issue with the #50 SCT Camaro.

“Just rolled out and seemed to have a bit of an issue with the gearbox,” he said.

‘When I’m pulling what I’d like to be fourth gear it seems to be a gear higher. It’s an issue we can’t fix during the session.

“Not the ideal start to our weekend, especially for my first time here in a Supercar.”

A second 40-minute practice session scheduled for 3:35pm will complete the day’s Supercars action.