Whincup edges McLaughlin in final practice at SMP

Jamie Whincup has edged Scott McLaughlin to first position in the second and final practice session for the BP Ultimate Sydney SuperSprint.

McLaughlin ended up splitting the Red Bull Holden Racing Team entries of Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen after the final flurry of lap times in a hit-out run under overcast skies at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Whincup (#88 ZB Commodore), who was only 23rd-fastest in Practice 1, now has the fastest time of the weekend having punched out a 1:28.8314s just after the chequered flag.

He had immediately gone within a tenth of van Gisbergen’s earlier benchmark in clocking a 1:29.0848s on new tyres on his first flier, which was best until Penrite Racing’s Anton De Pasquale wheeled the #99 ZB Commodore to a 1:29.0701s inside the final two minutes.

McLaughlin then got in a 1:28.9892s which had the #17 Shell V-Power Mustang fastest for a moment, before Whincup usurped him and van Gisbergen slotted into third with a 1:29.0168s in the #97 ZB Commodore.

On combined times, however, van Gisbergen’s 1:28.9179s has him second-best for the two sessions.

“It’s great to be back, great to be cutting laps,” said Whincup.

“It’s the first time in 12 weeks I haven’t been a second-and-a-half off the pace in practice, so that’s nice,” he quipped in an apparent reference to the BP Supercars All Stars Eseries.

“It was a quick, fast session, straight out of P1, literally no time to do anything, you make a few changes and straight into P2. That’s going to be the story of the day but overall, the car feels good.

“We did a little bit of a race run which was reasonable; the car’s pretty good over a lap. Everyone will improve for qualifying so we’ll have to keep chipping away.”

Lee Holdsworth (#5 Truck Assist Mustang) wound up fourth having briefly been second-fastest, with De Pasquale shuffled back to fifth all told.

Nick Percat (#8 Dunlop Super Dealer ZB Commodore), who held second from his first flyer until McLaughlin dislodged him with just over a dozen minutes of 30 to go, finished sixth-fastest at 0.2502s slower than Whincup’s best.

Rounding out the top 10 were Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Appliances Online ZB Commodore), Andre Heimgartner (#7 Ned Whisky Mustang), Macauley Jones (#3 CoolDrive ZB Commodore), and Rick Kelly (#15 Castrol Altima).

Fabian Coulthard (#12 Shell V-Power Mustang) was next at 0.5742s off the pace, while David Reynolds (#9 Penrite ZB Commodore) took 14th.

James Courtney finished 17th in his second session in Tickford Racing’s #44 Boost Mobile Mustang with a personal best of 1:29.6500s.

Qualifying, to be run in three parts including a Top 15 Shootout, is next up from 13:15 local time/AEST.

Results: Practice 2