Whincup heads all-Holden top five in Symmons Plains practice

Jamie Whincup has set the pace again in an ultra-tight Practice 2 for the Tyrepower Tasmania SuperSprint at Symmons Plains Raceway.

Whincup snipped a few hundredths of a second from his year-old practice lap record with a 50.5084s in the second-last minute of the 30-minute session.

Fellow Red Bull Holden Racing Team driver Shane van Gisbergen ended up a narrow second, from Penrite Racing’s David Reynolds, Irwin Racing’s Mark Winterbottom, and Mobil 1 Mega Racing’s James Courtney, making for an all-Holden ZB Commodore top five.

Chaz Mostert was the first of the Mustangs in sixth, 0.1848s off the pace, in Tickford Racing’s #55 Supercheap Auto Racing entry, one position ahead of Scott McLaughlin (#17 Shell V-Power Mustang).

Under threatening skies and with reports of early spits of rain, less than a tenth of a second separated as many as six cars at times.

Van Gisbergen was fastest after the first timed laps in the #97 ZB Commodore before Fabian Coulthard (#12 DJR Team Penske Mustang), Whincup (#88 ZB Commodore), McLaughlin, Scott Pye (#2 WAU ZB Commodore), and Winterbottom (#18 ZB Commodore) had spells at the top.

Van Gisbergen moved the mark to a 50.6546s with a bit over two minutes remaining before he was bettered by his team-mate by 0.1462s.

The Kiwi found more time a couple of laps later but came up 0.0187s short of Whincup, who revealed that he was fined having set his fastest lap in Practice 1 with yellow flags out at the hairpin.

“Slapped on the wrist, I set my quickest time under yellow,” said Whincup.

“The car that was causing the yellow was down at Hobart, so I thought I’m okay to stay up it. But anyway, there’s no safety breach.

“The car’s good. Cauchi made a couple of gains then in P(ractice )2 so we’re there or thereabouts.

“It’s not perfect though. Here, the last couple of years have been really good with the dual springs, you can get the best of everything. Maybe I’m asking for a bit too much. It’s nowhere near as good as it was on the duallies.”

Rounding out the top 10 were Coulthard, Todd Hazelwood (#35 Matt Stone Racing ZB Commodore), and Will Davison (#23 Milwaukee Mustang), meaning they will go directly to Part 2 of Armor All Qualifying for Race 7 tomorrow.

Nick Percat (#8 Dunlop ZB Commodore), who was the cause of the aforementioned Practice 1 yellow flag, was the first on the outside of the top 10 in Practice 2, having been bumped by Reynolds’ fastest lap.

Simona De Silvestro, 18th fastest, had an extremely wild moment when she dropped a wheel of the Team Harvey Norman Altima off the track at Turn 7 early in the session.

The Swiss driver spun Car #78 at around 180km/h but managed to stay off everything and not get collected by the Boost Mobile Racing ZB Commodore of Richie Stanaway which followed.

There will be another 30-minute practice session tomorrow at 1110 local time/AEDT before Armor All Qualifying for Race 7 starts at 1350.

Results: Practice 2