Whincup smashes record

Jamie Whincup has obliterated the lap record at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, becoming the first ever man into the 'fours'.

In the last seconds of qualifying, the six-time champ pulled out a 2min04.9097, blasting to the top of times and knocking off Ford's Scott Pye.

Shortly before, Pye recorded a 2min05,2436, which went below the lap record clocked yesterday. But it was the Red Bull star who took top honours and prepared in the best possible way for this afternoon's qualifying session.

"We're just going about our job trying to make the buggy as quick as possible," Whincup said.

"We won't get too carried away with practice - a cool number came up on the dash but no doubt there's going to be a big improvement for qually later this arvo."

Pye flew the flag for the Fords after co-driver Marcos Ambrose featured in the top five in the co-driver session earlier this morning.

"It was short lived [being fastest] but the track's fast, really good," he said.

"We've worked on the car this weekend, Marcos got the car changed a little bit from where it was yesterday... I'm pumped with a [2min]5.2 that's mega but Jamie's lap - full respect."

Jason Bright was third in the order, the Brad Jones Racing Commodores looking quick with yesterday's fast man Fabian Coulthard fifth.

The session was a tough one for Tim Blanchard in the CoolDrive Commodore, suffering from a battery issue that forced his team to push the car back to the garage; and for Andre Heimgartner who speared off at turn one.

Click here for full session results.

Stay tuned for what's set to be a quick qualifying at 3.50pm local time.