Whincup fastest by 0.3s in Sandown Additional Drivers session

Jamie Whincup has set the pace by almost three tenths of a second in Supercars’ Additional Drivers practice session at the Penrite Oil Sandown SuperSprint.

The seven-time champion, in his first official session back in Car #88, headed up a Red Bull Ampol Racing one-two with a 1:08.2309s compared to Garth Tander’s personal-best 1:08.5136s in what was officially Practice 2 at a cloudy Sandown.

Another recent full-timer, Fabian Coulthard, finished up third in Walkinshaw Andretti United’s #25 Mobil 1 Optus ZB Commodore which is usually steered by 2021 Repco Bathurst 1000 winner Chaz Mostert, as the co-drivers got seat time ahead of this year’s Great Race.

Zak Best was the early pace-setter in Thomas Randle’s #55 Castrol Mustang, with a 1:09.9691s on his first flier and a 1:08.9071s on his next, around two tenths of a second faster than Tander on each occasion.

When he pitted, Tander took over top spot with a 1:08.6338s and then a 1:08.5486s in the #97 ZB Commodore that championship leader Shane van Gisbergen was behind the wheel of earlier in the day.

That was the start of a long, initial spell with Triple Eight Race Engineering first and second, Whincup on a 1:08.6333s in Broc Feeney’s ZB Commodore, before Coulthard went quickest on a 1:08.5192s in the 24th minute.

Whincup then threatened to move the benchmark when he went quickest to the second sector, only to breach track limits at the end of the back straight.

A lap later, however, he strung the whole lap together and checked in at a 1:08.2309s just before the allocated 30 minutes was up.

With the chequered flag out, Tander improved marginally to get back ahead of Coulthard, by a gap of just 0.0006s.

Tony D’Alberto was fourth on a 1:08.6263s in the #11 Shell V-Power Mustang belonging to Anton De Pasquale, with James Moffat rounding out the top five in Cameron Waters’ #6 Monster Energy Mustang on a 1:08.6551s.

The rest of the top 10 was Alex Davison (#17 Shell V-Power Mustang), Best on a 1:08.7004s, Dale Wood (#8 R&J Batteries ZB Commodore), Jack Perkins (#9 Boost Mobile ZB Commodore), and Jordan Boys (#96 DrillPro ZB Commodore).

Wood’s time came before he torched at least the left-front on Andre Heimgartner’s car and ran through the gravel at Turn 1, while Nick Percat’s co-driver Warren Luff appeared to have the corresponding tyre on the #2 Mobil 1 NTI ZB Commodore go flat just after.

Luff, who wound up 22nd-quickest of the 24 drivers in the session, had the tyre let go just as he turned into the esses at the end of the back straight, but managed to guide the WAU entry back to the pits.

Practice 3, for the Repco Supercars Championship’s primary drivers, will take place tomorrow from 10:20 local time/AEST.

Results: Practice 2