Whincup the New Record Holder

Jamie Whincup has shown his true colours in the final practice session of the Wilson Security Sandown 500, during which the lap record was lowered once again.

Whincup now holds the practice record, after a stunning 1min08.6662 – over two-tenths of a second quicker than what stood – after the chequered flag had been waved.

With around 10 minutes to go, both Red Bull Racing Australia teammates came tantilisingly close to the 1min08.9334 set by Craig Lowndes yesterday.

In the post-race press conference after that session, Lowndes said they could go faster – and today they did.

With around three minutes to go, Garth Tander and his Holden Racing Team Commodore featured, but was an amazing six ten-thousandths slower.  

But Lowndes bettered the time. And then Whincup.

The Red Bull pair were followed home by Tim Slade, the highest place Mercedes-Benz; Tander, Will Davison, Lee Holdsworth, Mark Winterbottom, Alex Premat, Shane van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin.

Click here for full session results.

Two Benzes and two Falcons made up the top 10, the rest were Holdens.

Others to note were Jason Bright in 11th, last race winner James Courtney in 14th, the highest placed Nissan in Todd Kelly in 16th, and Fabian Coulthard in 26th.

A 20-minute qualifying session, to determine the starting order for the following co-drivers qualifying race, follows at 12.25pm AEST.

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