Courtney blazes to top spot in bruising Adelaide practice

James Courtney has wound back the years to lead the way on day one of the VAILO Adelaide 500, with the two-time winner quickest in a surprising first practice session.

Courtney, who won the Adelaide 500 in 2014 and 2015, put his Blanchard Racing Team Ford Mustang on top of the time sheets with a 1:19.6835s.

The 44-year-old was 0.155s quicker than David Reynolds, who led the times for the balance of the session, with 2016 Adelaide winner Nick Percat, 2012 winner Will Davison, and Chaz Mostert rounding out the top five.

"The car was really good straight out of the gate," 2010 champion Courtney said.

"The car was quite good early at the Gold Coast as well, so we kept the same philosophy this weekend, it's a bit like the Gold Coast's bigger brother this circuit, just beefed it up slightly.

"The car was mint straight out, the guys did a great job and then we tuned it really well, only made one change that didn't go the right way, but apart from that it was a really clean, nice session."

Championship leader Will Brown, who ended up sixth, kicked off the Supercars action with a 1:20.7678s, with De Anton Pasquale splitting the two Triple Eight entries.

The early pace-setters were Percat and Reynolds, the 2016 Adelaide winner going fastest with a 1:20.3917s ahead of Team 18 veteran Reynolds' 1:20.3476. Mostert lowered the number to a 1:20.3248s, before Percat (1:20.1301s), Cameron Hill (1:20.2746s), and Courtney (1:20.2961s) all went quicker.

Reynolds was first to dip into the 1:19s with a 1:19.8388s, with Brown going second with a 1:20.1171s before the red flags unfurled around the circuit.

A number of drivers struck the tyre bundle at the Senna Chicane, few more so than Percat, who ultimately triggered the stoppage after his grille became dislodged.

Both Penrite Fords also struck the bundle, with Matt Payne returning after the stoppage with a 1:20.2668s to go sixth fastest. Courtney went second with a 1:20.1019s, but was still 0.263s behind Reynolds.

De Pasquale became the biggest victim of the tyre bundle with four minutes remaining, sustaining heavy damage to the front splitter of the #11 Shell V-Power Mustang.

The De Pasquale incident left more debris in the middle of the Senna Chicane, with Dick Johnson Racing sending the #11 back out onto the track to verify if there was further damage.

As the chequered flag flew, Davison jumped to second with a 1:20.0754s, which became fourth when Courtney blazed to top spot and Percat to third.

Brodie Kostecki, Matt Payne, Hill and Andre Heimgartner rounded out the top 10, with Thomas Randle, Cam Waters and Broc Feeney 11th through 13th.

Supercars will return on Friday with Practice 2 at 1:05pm local time/1:35pm AEDT, followed by Boost Mobile Qualifying at 5:30pm/6:00pm AEDT.