It was Mark Winterbottom’s turn to lead the way for Prodrive in a dry second practice session at Symmons Plains.

The Ford driver recorded a best of 51.40s with two minutes remaining after being one of several to opt for pre-marked soft tyres in his final run.

“The car felt really good,” said Winterbottom

“It’s nice to do laps in the dry because in the wet it’s so sketchy. So to have a trouble free session is clearly good for the team.

“The wet sessions are about chasing traction. In that second session we switched the car back to our base set-up and were really were on the money.

“It’s nice to then adjust on the car and actually have it respond. Even the changes that didn’t work, we simply went the other way and it responded in the right way.”

Will Davison also used soft tyres to draw within 0.05s of Winterbottom with his final lap to end up second.

Craig Lowndes had endured several spins during the 60 minutes before jumping into the top three, ending up as the quickest hard tyre runner in the process.

Garth Tander, Fabian Coulthard, David Reynolds, Shane van Gisbergen, James Courtney, Lee Holdsworth and Andre Heimgartner completed the top 10.

Although the track was dry throughout, oil left at Turn 4 from an earlier support category session made for tricky conditions.

The oil-dry caught out several drivers including Jason Bright, Lee Holdsworth and Lowndes, who spun three times at the same corner.

A mistake from Bright at Turn 6 that saw the Team BOC Holden nudge into the tyre wall was however the only cause of a red flag, coming with a quarter of the session left.

A third and final 15 minute practice session will be run tomorrow morning ahead of qualifying.

PRACTICE 2