De Pasquale paces opening Sydney practice

A late flyer has helped Anton De Pasquale top opening practice at the BP Ultimate Sydney SuperSprint.

De Pasquale, who has recorded four poles and three wins already in Sydney, headed Shell V-Power Racing Team teammate Will Davison in the 30-minute session.

Will Brown, who scored his maiden pole last weekend, was third ahead of Jamie Whincup.

Drivers were met with blustery conditions and a strong headwind heading into Turn 1.

De Pasquale clocked a standing 1:30.921s before Brodie Kostecki lowered the marker to a 1:30.477s.

The conditions made for tricky running as drivers pushed to find balance ahead of the second session, which will be followed by three-part qualifying.

Notably, van Gisbergen ran long at Turn 6 on the five-minute mark, but managed to avoid flat-spotting his tyres.

Seconds later, Winterbottom clocked a 1:30.364s to fire to the top, with Whincup slotting in just 0.021s behind.

Kostecki lowered his own marker to a 1:30.410, with the top three covered by just 0.046s.

Drivers bolted on fresh tyres for a final run, with Cameron Waters heading Tickford Racing teammate Jack Le Brocq.

Lap times continued to fall, with Davison and Whincup the first drivers to crack the 1:29s bracket.

Brown split Davison and Whincup, but De Pasquale put his fresh tyre to the best use of all runners with a 1:29.440s.

De Pasquale's came at a good time, with light rain beginning to fall at the end of the session.

Waters and Le Brocq were seventh and eighth all told, with Tim Slade and Chaz Mostert slotting into fifth and sixth.

Winterbottom didn't improve and ended up 13th, with Kostecki 14th and van Gisbergen 16th.

"It's only Practice 1, everyone's trying things, we're trying things," De Pasquale said.

"It's good to have good momentum, obviously our cars are in a pretty good window.

"I went deep [into Turn 1], maybe a little bit too deep... there's plenty of grip down there, but it changes.

"Then it started sprinkling... it's testing us."

Teams will have five new sets of the Dunlop Soft Tyre from qualifying onwards.

Cars will return to the track for Practice 2 at 12:20pm AEDT.

Three-part ARMOR ALL Qualifying will follow at 2:10pm, with the 32-lap Race 26 to commence at 4:45pm.