Whincup pips Mostert in night practice at Barbagallo

Jamie Whincup has pipped Chaz Mostert to the fastest lap in the only night time practice session at the Pirtek Perth SuperNight.

Whincup ended the half-hour session at Barbagallo Wanneroo Raceway with a best time of 53.4430s in the #88 Red Bull HRT ZB Commodore, 0.0246s faster than Mostert and 1.1300s under the old practice lap record for the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship in the West.

Mostert topped the timing screen after the first runs on the new track surface with a 54.0159s in the #55 Supercheap Auto Mustang before being bundled as far back as fifth.

He regained the fastest lap in the 24th minute before being usurped by Tickford stable-mate Will Davison and then Whincup, but a 53.4676s in the final three minutes put Mostert back up to second position.

Davison ended up third in the #23 Milwaukee Mustang with a lap just 0.0351s off Whincup’s best, while Fabian Coulthard (#12 Shell V-Power Mustang) was fourth and David Reynolds (#9 Penrite ZB Commodore) fifth.

Lee Holdsworth spent a few minutes in the lead before going on to place the #5 The Bottle-O Mustang in sixth at 0.1865s off the pace, while the top 10 was rounded out by Anton De Pasquale (#99 Erebus ZB Commodore), Scott McLaughlin (#17 DJR Team Penske Mustang), Scott Pye (#2 Mobil 1 Mega ZB Commodore), and Cameron Waters (#6 Monster Energy Mustang).

Whincup was near the pointy end of the order for much of the piece, rising from sixth when he set what would be the quickest effort of the evening, and was buoyed by the performance after a shocking run last time out at Phillip Island.

“First impressions are we’re much more competitive than Phillip Island,” he declared.

“That’s not going to guarantee anything, we’ve still got to keep the ball rolling but much more competitive out the truck.

“We were absolutely nowhere rolling out of the truck (at Phillip Island) and we just feel we were doing catch up all weekend.

“It’s nice to be in a position where we should be competitive this weekend. As it always is you just have to grind it out as the weekend goes on.”

McLaughlin had some time with the fastest lap but reportedly took new front springs and shocks, as well as a change to rear ride height, for this third run as his DJRTP crew chased pace in the final 10 minutes.

Pye had an unusually spectacular off at Kolb Corner in the ninth minute when his Walkinshaw Andretti United entry scooped up a massive amount of dirt after running off with a tyre failure which was traced back to running over the edge of the road at Turn 5.

That drama came before he clocked the 53.7648s that left him ninth on the timing monitor.

Shane van Gisbergen was 11th in the #97 Triple Eight Race Engineering ZB Commodore, 0.3585s slower than his pace-setting team-mate, while Simona De Silvestro (#78 Harvey Norman Altima) led the way for Kelly Racing in 12th.

Practice 2 (30 minutes), which sets the starting order for knockout Armor All Qualifying, is set to take place in daylight tomorrow from 1245 local time/1445 AEST.

Results: Practice 1