Cameron Waters headed the field in Practice 3 for the Repco Supercars Championship at the Penrite Oil Sandown SuperSprint.
The Tickford Racing driver got the best of the tricky drying conditions to record a 1:09.1841s, a third of a second clear of second-fastest Chaz Mostert.
With conditions improving throughout, the best times came as the chequered flag waved, with Will Brown shooting up the order to finish third.
A damp track with a drying line welcomed drivers out, a mixture of tyre strategies in place with some on wets and others on slicks.
Mostert set the early pace with a 1:16.2433s, though that quickly had 1.5s trimmed off it on his second flying lap.
The Walkinshaw Andretti United driver was out on the wet tyres, while David Reynolds was the leading dry-tyre runner with a 1:16.2561s in the early running.
Davison was the first slick-shod runner to go fastest, the Dick Johnson Racing driver logging a 1:13.1843s.
Also on slicks, Broc Feeney ran off the road on two consecutive laps at Turn 3, bouncing through the grass and mud before rejoining.
He wasn’t alone, Mostert also ran deep at Turn 2 on what was his first run on the super soft tyres.
Van Gisbergen improved the pace soon after to log a 1:12.4092s to sit 0.1761s clear at the top.
Next to tour the scenery was Jack Smith, whose splitter picked up a chin full of mud in the process.
Midway through the 30-minute hit out, Reynolds went fastest with a 1:12.1243s.
Conditions remained tricky, Mostert locking the rears on entry into Turn 2 to skate off the road once again.
Jake Kostecki joined that club moments later as the grass behind the Turn 3 apex began to resemble a mud pool.
With 10 minutes to run, Davison was fastest once again on a 1:11.6209s, with Mostert slotting in second by 0.2557s.
That lasted until Andre Heimgartner improved to a 1:11.3578s, and Waters logged a 1:10.8334s.
Brodie Kostecki sat third ahead of Bryce Fullwood, Davison having slipped to fifth with five minutes left.
Mostert went fastest with three minutes remaining, the WAU driver baking a 1:10.6117s.
It stood for just seconds as Davison found more time to set a 1:10.1350s.
Conditions were continually improving, with lap times dropping as a consequence.
That saw a number of purple sectors, while much of the timing screen was lit up green with personal best sectors.
Thomas Randle jumped up to third, which quickly became fourth when Waters became the first driver into the 1:09 bracket – 1:09.7324s – only for Mostert to lower that benchmark even further, setting a 1:09.5168s.
The chequered flag fell with a host of drivers on fast laps, which saw the order change rapidly at its conclusion.
It saw Waters atop the timesheets from Mostert, Will Brown, van Gisbergen, and Heimgartner. Rounding out the top 10 were Scott Pye, Davison, Reynolds, Fullwood, and Tim Slade.
The Supercars Championship is next on track for Qualifying for Race 24 at 12:50 AEST.
Discussion about this post