Whincup leads Triple Eight one-two in Practice 1 at AGP

Jamie Whincup has gone fastest from Triple Eight team-mate Shane van Gisbergen in Practice 1 for the Beaurepaires Melbourne 400 at the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix.

On a weekend in which both compounds of tyres are in play, both Whincup and van Gisbergen reportedly had new soft tyres bolted onto their Red Bull Holden Racing Team entries for their final runs in the 30-minute session.

With the chequered flag out, van Gisbergen initially usurped session-long pace-setter Lee Holdsworth with a 1:56.6080s in the #97 ZB Commodore before Whincup laid down a 1:56.4196s in the #88 ZB Commodore.

That meant that Tickford drivers Holdsworth (#5 Truck Assist Mustang) and Jack Le Brocq (#55 Supercheap Auto Mustang) wound up third and fourth respectively courtesy of their very first flying laps, which were also conducted on the softer compound.

Holdsworth’s best was a 1:56.6244s while Le Brocq was 0.3013s away, with Andre Heimgartner fifth in Kelly Racing’s #7 Ned Mustang at 1:56.9287s.

Scott McLaughlin ended up only 13th with his best time set on the hard compound, but he was fastest to the second sector with soft tyres on the #17 Shell V-Power Mustang when he pitted before completing the lap at the end of the piece.

The championship leader had been the fastest on hards for much of the session, although that honour fell to Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Appliances Online ZB Commodore) by the time everyone had filed back to the pit lane.

Mostert was ninth all told, with sixth through eighth filled by Will Davison (#23 Milwaukee Mustang), Fabian Coulthard (#12 Shell V-Power Mustang), and Rick Kelly (#15 Castrol Mustang) respectively.

Nick Percat, on soft tyres, rounded out the top 10 in the #8 Dunlop ZB Commodore, with McLaughlin second quickest of those who set their fastest lap on hards.

Over six minutes was lost at around the halfway point when Scott Pye stopped on-track with a suspected alternator problem in Team 18’s #20 DeWalt ZB Commodore.

He propped up the timesheet in the 24-car field with a 2:00.6621s on hard tyres, 0.0546s slower than new Team Sydney driver Alex Davison (#19 Local Legends ZB Commodore).

Van Gisbergen and Percat were both seen having offs at Turn 9, although Pye’s was the only somewhat significant drama in the session.

Practice 2, another half-hour session, is due to start at 13:35 local time/AEDT.

Results: Practice 1