hero-img

Coulthard on top early

20 Jun 2015
Kiwi lowers lap record further with his first run on soft tyres in this morning's practice at Hidden Valley.
Advertisement

Freightliner Racing's Fabian Coulthard further lowered the lap record at Hidden Valley this morning, topping the 15-minute practice session that allows teams to prepare for qualifying, and recording a 1min06.4311 lap.

The time was 0.29sec quicker than the time recorded by yesterday's fast man David Reynolds, showing Brad Jones Racing as a strong contender in today's races.

Coulthard elected not to run on soft Dunlop tyres yesterday, making the top three on the harder compound - and once his team bolted the softs onto the Commodore it lit up at the SKYCITY Triple Crown.

Will Davison jumped into second at the end of the session, overtaking Championship leader Mark Winterbottom (who set his time on hard tyres) and his quick teammate Chaz Mostert in the final seconds.

"It's not a bad way to start the day at all," Coulthard said.

"The car's awesome. We worked hard yesterday and the changes overnight made the car nicer again. It's a pleasure to drive."

Behind fourth placed Mostert was Shane van Gisbergen, Reynolds, fourth PRA driver rookie Andre Heimgartner and BJR's Jason Bright.

The Red Bull Commodores were nowhere to be seen at the top, with Craig Lowndes 15th and Jamie Whincup 21st.

Advertisement

Team boss Roland Dane said Red Bull was focusing on improving at the corners they couldn't master yesterday.

Dane believes conditions will be very different for this afternoon's races, compared to what they are working to this morning.

"The track's evolving all the time and we're running at a different temperature than we will this afternoon," Dane said.

"This track keeps getting faster as we get rubber down ... it's going to be a lot hotter and I believe the track, at the end of the day, will be something else in terms of grip."

Troubles continued for Garth Tander who was 25th in the Holden Racing Team Commodore, as the team made significant changes to the front end of the car. He suffered steering issues yesterday that saw him back in the field.

Click here for full session results.

Back-to-back qualifying - first on the hard tyre, then on the soft - kicks off at 12pm EST.

Related News

Advertisement