McLaughlin leads Team 18 duo in Practice 2

A mistake on his final run couldn’t stop Scott McLaughlin from topping second practice at the CoreStaff Darwin SuperSprint.

The two-time reigning champion sat atop the times for much of the 30-minutes, having recorded a 1:06.2487s in the early stages.

McLaughlin threatened to go faster again on his last run, improving to the end of the first sector before a slide at Turn 5 meant he aborted the lap.

He then fell just short of his own benchmark with his last lap, a 1:06.3852s, on a circuit where the quick times are usually done on the first attempt with a new tyre.

Team 18 duo Mark Winterbottom and Scott Pye ended up second and third, backing up Pye’s Practice 1-topping effort earlier in the morning.

Said Winterbottom: “In the first session we weren’t quite there, but we tuned it up and got a lot better.

“If you’re within a tenth of McLaughlin it normally means you’re somewhere up the front.”

Jamie Whincup and Fabian Coulthard, who tied on points at last weekend’s BetEasy Darwin Triple Crown, were again closely matched in fourth and fifth.

Whincup had been among those to improve with a late lap, while Coulthard's time was done midway through and had him second to McLaughlin for a period.

Cameron Waters, Nick Percat, Anton De Pasquale, Bryce Fullwood and Andre Heimgartner completed the top 10.

Having been 12th in the opening session, Shane van Gisbergen was again down the order in 14th.

A three-part ARMOR ALL Qualifying, including a Top 15 Shootout, will take place ahead of this afternoon’s 38-lap race.