De Pasquale tops Practice 1, Feeney crashes

Anton De Pasquale has set the fastest time in opening practice, which was cut short by a Broc Feeney accident.

De Pasquale emerged quickest of all on the revamped circuit, albeit by 0.04s.

Shane van Gisbergen managed to set the second fastest time despite being hampered by a splitter issue.

It was a tougher tale for teammate Broc Feeney, who crashed at Turn 5 in the early minutes.

Feeney oversteered into the barriers, with the car's rear wing ripped off in the impact.

Will Davison led the times at the time of the stoppage on a 1:47.663s.

By session's end, that had been lowered to a 1:46.601s by De Pasquale, with van Gisbergen on a 1:46.643s.

De Pasquale and van Gisbergen were the only two drivers into the 1:46s bracket.

"There's a lot of cool changes from a driver's point of view," De Pasquale said of the revamped layout.

"It's fast, but you're on the edge. It's really cool.

"It's a shame we got a red flag, we missed a few laps there, but we'll have another go this afternoon.

"It felt good, but it's not perfect. We'll keep tuning it up."

Davison was third all told on a 1:47.049s ahead of David Reynolds, with Macauley Jones impressing to fifth.

The top 10 runners set their times on Dunlop's Soft tyre.

Several drivers encountered offs during the truncated session, which was stopped for over 20 minutes after the Feeney accident.

The Turn 5 barriers required repairs, which threatened to end the session before an additional five minutes were added.

Notably, Thomas Randle fired off twice at Turn 1, the first excursion featuring an error in sympathy by teammate Jake Kostecki.

Bryce Fullwood also surfed the grass at Turn 1 late in the session.

Cars will return to the track for Practice 2 at 12:30pm AEST.