Mark Winterbottom ended the final open test session at Sydney Motorsport Park encouraged by progress with his new FG X Falcon after topping the time sheets.

Winterbottom moved into top spot with a 1:29.58s lap in the final five minutes of the session, having spent the bulk of the two hours on the cusp of the top 10.

The Prodrive Racing Australia driver’s effort dislodged previous fast-man James Courtney, while Fabian Coulthard was third quickest.

Winterbottom, who was cautiously optimistic about the gains made with the new model Ford following yesterday’s running, bolted on a used set of pre-marked softs to set the quickest time.

“The guys did a lot of work overnight because yesterday we were struggling a little bit,” Winterbottom told Speedcafe.com.

“This morning felt quite good. Although the tyres get older, you feel like you’re making gains. We’ve had good tyre life and today it started to feel the way we want it to.

“It was a good session and it was good for a first time with a new engineer (Jason Gray) to make such progress over night.

“The tyres we did the time on were softs that had done about 120km. The guys analyse it all but you never really know what the grip will be like until you’re out there turning the wheel.

“We’ll see if the green hard makes a difference,” he added ahead of this afternoon’s Shootout, which will see all cars on new hard tyres.

“Set-up for the Shootout will be a bit of a guess, but we’re not really going for a lap time, it’s just testing.”

Courtney was 0.4s adrift of his fellow native Western Sydneysider this morning, having jumped from the bottom half of the field to first position just after the hour mark,

Coulthard, fastest at last year’s pre-season test, was the only other driver to lap under 90 seconds, being the first man to do so just over twenty minutes into proceedings.

The Brad Jones Racing driver also endured a wild final corner spin late in the piece as he failed to get close to his personal best for the remainder of the session.

Will Davison was fourth and Ash Walsh seventh in an encouraging showing for Erebus Motorsport.

Marcos Ambrose continued to make progress as he re-acclimatises to V8 Supercars, taking the X Box-backed DJR Team Penske Falcon to fifth for the session.

Ambrose was one of only six drivers to record a better lap than they managed during yesterday’s three hit-outs.

David Reynolds was sixth, while Lee Holdsworth, Saturday fast man Todd Kelly, and Garth Tander rounded out the top ten.

Shane van Gisbergen continued to fight his Tekno Autosports Commodore to 17th, Craig Lowndes experienced a spin on his way to 20th, and Jamie Whincup was 23rd.

Todd Kelly’s third session benchmark remains the fastest time of the weekend as warm temperatures again hampered progress, Winterbottom falling 0.05s short of knocking off the Nissan Motorsport driver’s time.

A full-field Shootout will complete the SuperTest from 1400 AEDT.

Result: Session 4, Sydney Motorsport Park SuperTest

1

Ford Pepsi Max Crew

Mark Winterbottom

Ford Falcon FG/X

01:29.58

2

Holden Racing Team

James Courtney

Holden Commodore VF

01:29.93

00:00.35

3

Freightliner Racing

Fabian Coulthard

Holden Commodore VF

01:29.94

00:00.36

4

Erebus Motorsport V8

Will Davison

Mercedes E63 AMG

01:30.10

00:00.52

5

DJR Team Penske

Marcos Ambrose

Ford Falcon FG/X

01:30.16

00:00.58

6

The Bottle-O Racing Team

David Reynolds

Ford Falcon FG

01:30.17

00:00.59

7

Erebus Motorsport V8

Ashley Walsh

Mercedes E63 AMG

01:30.18

00:00.60

8

Walkinshaw Racing

Lee Holdsworth

Holden Commodore VF

01:30.18

00:00.60

9

Nissan Motorsport

Todd Kelly

Nissan Altima

01:30.36

00:00.78

10

Holden Racing Team

Garth Tander

Holden Commodore VF

01:30.38

00:00.80

11

Ford Pepsi Max Crew

Chaz Mostert

Ford Falcon FG/X

01:30.47

00:00.89

12

Wilson Security Racing GRM

Scott McLaughlin

Volvo S60

01:30.58

00:01.00

13

Nissan Motorsport

Rick Kelly

Nissan Altima

01:30.59

00:01.01

14

Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport

Nick Percat

Holden Commodore VF

01:30.67

00:01.09

15

Nissan Motorsport

James Moffat

Nissan Altima

01:30.76

00:01.18

16

Team GB Galvanizing

Dale Wood

Holden Commodore VF

01:30.78

00:01.20

17

Team TEKNO Darrell Lea

Shane Van Gisbergen

Holden Commodore VF

01:30.87

00:01.29

18

Team BOC

Jason Bright

Holden Commodore VF

01:30.95

00:01.37

19

Nissan Motorsport

Michael Caruso

Nissan Altima

01:30.97

00:01.39

20

Red Bull Racing Australia

Craig Lowndes

Holden Commodore VF

01:31.00

00:01.42

21

Supercheap Auto Racing

Tim Slade

Holden Commodore VF

01:31.11

00:01.53

22

Wilson Security Racing GRM

David Wall

Volvo S60

01:31.26

00:01.68

23

Red Bull Racing Australia

Jamie Whincup

Holden Commodore VF

01:31.33

00:01.75

24

Super Black Racing

Andre Heimgartner

Ford Falcon FG

01:31.92

00:02.34

25

Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport

Tim Blanchard

Holden Commodore VF

01:32.42

00:02.84