Versa Motorsport’s Cooper Webster went fastest in qualifying for Race 1 of Round 2 of the S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship, part of the Shannons SpeedSeries at Phillip Island.

Despite there being just nine cars in the field, it was a very competitive session with several drivers featuring at the top of the times.

Round 1 winner, Team BRM’s Joey Mawson, was the pace-setter at first before Webster’s team-mate Blake Purdie and James Golding (for Garry Rogers Motorsport) headed the timing.

By the halfway point, it was Golding from Webster and Aaron Cameron (GRM), with Purdie next ahead of Team Valvoline GRM’s Jordan Boys, Versa’s Winton Smith, Webster, Team BRM’s Mark Rosser and Nick Carroll.

Then it was Webster who went to the top, saying post-session, “The car felt pretty good. We adopted our own strategy which was a bit different from what everyone else was doing, to get the car up to speed.

“By the end the car was great. It was turning and rotating brilliantly. I am so pleased with how it is going, and I think we could have gone faster if not for the late red flag.”

Webster finished the session with a best lap of 1:25.3106s. He was 0.26 seconds up on Mawson and Golding, that pair split by 0.03s.

Cameron finished the session fourth, in front of Purdie and Boys, who was the reason for the slightly shortened session, with a drama at Doohan Corner.

Smith finished seventh after an issue finalising his international licence yesterday, and he placed ahead of Carroll and Rosser. The field was covered by 2.6s.

The SpeedSeries is streaming live and ad-free on Stan Sport in Australia, with international viewers able to watch for free on Speedcafe.