Whincup pips McLaughlin in final practice

Jamie Whincup trumped Scott McLaughlin by just 0.0002s in the final practice session at the Wilson Security Sandown 500.

McLaughlin became the first driver to lap in the 1:08s this weekend by recording a 1:08.9247s 10 minutes into the half hour session.

The Volvo led the way until Whincup set his 1:08.9245s at the 23 minute mark, putting a Red Bull Holden on top for the first time this weekend.

“There’s nothing in it,” said Whincup, who along with co-driver Paul Dumbrell is aiming for a hat-trick of poles at Sandown.

“The car is in reasonable condition but we’ll keep tuning it and see what we can do with it in qualifying.

“There’s a big difference in the conditions today.

“It’s much warmer than yesterday, so it’s a big balancing act behind the scenes with the engineers.”

McLaughlin is pleased with the speed of his Volvo but admitted disappointment at not improving in his final run.

“I didn’t quite get the time in the end that I wanted to, but there’s plenty of time in the car and hopefully we can put it together in qualifying,” he said.

Shane van Gisbergen spent most of the session towards the bottom of the time sheets before jumping to third during a late flurry of fast times.

Fabian Coulthard and James Courtney were also later improvers to slot into fourth and fifth respectively.

Garth Tander was sixth and set to improve on his last lap before being held up by a slow Van Gisbergen at Turn 9.

“(I came across) a sightseeing Kiwi down at Dandenong Road. The sun is out, so why wouldn’t you stop and go slow?” quipped Tander.

“It’s only practice so the lap time doesn’t matter too much. It would of been nice (to finish it), but we were up the front pretty much all session which is encouraging.”

There was aggravation too between James Moffat and Shae Davies.

Aggrieved at being held up by the rookie, Moffat instigated light side-to-side contact between the cars at Turn 1 before the duo made further contact on the run to Turn 3.

“We’re all trying to get a clean lap,” shrugged Davies post-session.

“I’m trying to do the same thing as the rest of them. They probably think I’m slower and shouldn’t be there.

“He pushed me wide into Turn 1, Iet him overtake and then I just let him know what I think about that.”

Chaz Mostert, Scott Pye, Andre Heimgartner and Will Davison completed the top 10 in a session that saw few co-drivers turn laps.

Qualifying is scheduled for 1150 local time ahead of the afternoon’s two 20 lap sprint races that will set the grid for tomorrow’s Sandown 500.

Result: Virgin Australia Supercars Championship Wilson Security Sandown 500 Practice 4