Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom has shown the way in the first of three V8 Supercars practice sessions for the day at Symmons Plains.

Finding himself in the bottom 50 percent of the championship due to a gearbox failure in the opening race of the season in Adelaide, Winterbottom set his best time of 52.41s at the 22 minute mark of the half hour, 16 car, session.

The time eclipsed the best effort of Garth Tander by by 0.09s. The Holden Racing Team driver had held sway at the top of the sheets for much of the going.

Brad Jones Racing team-mates Fabian Coulthard and Jason Bright subsequently split the factory pilots by jumping to second and third respectively inside the final minute.

Bright had earlier complained of braking inconsistency with his Team BOC Holden, and was one of several to run off at the Turn 4 hairpin.

Alex Davison, Scott McLaughlin, David Reynolds, Scott Pye, Dean Fiore and Todd Kelly completed the top 10.

As expected, teams punctuated their track running with long stints in the garage for set-up changes. The top four drivers each completed between 19 and 21 laps of the sub 60 second venue over the 30 minutes.

The driver who spent the most time in pitlane was Lee Holdsworth, who pulled his Erebus Mercedes into its garage after just three laps with an electrical problem. The car did not return to the track prior to the chequered flag.

There was minor drama too for Dean Fiore, who had the rear windscreen of his Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport Holden blow out on the back straight. The perspex came to rest safely on the infield.

UPDATE: All teams will be required to screw in their rear screens, rather than just use the bonding agent, this weekend following the Fiore incident.

The first full-field session of the weekend will kick-off at 1215 local time, with a third and final practice of the day scheduled for 1330.

See below for the Practice 1 result

See below for Speedcafe.com’s event preview video from Symmons Plains