Volvo breaks practice lap record

A condensed Friday schedule meant two half hour practice sessions to day - and the young guns have fired, with Scott McLaughlin and Volvo on top this time.

McLaughlin has not raced at the circuit before, but that didn't stop him from smashing Craig Lowndes' practice lap record, a 1min29.249, set here in 2012.

A massive 1.24 seconds ahead of closest competitor Holden's Jamie Whincup, McLaughlin set his 1min29.0808 lap late in the session.

"We missed out (running green soft tyres) in the first session - we just thought we'd run them then," McLaughlin said.

"They were greens, we just had to bolt them on and see how we go. The thing was really good.

"I drive to the grip level, and that grip level was awesome, that thing was awesome - I can't thank the boys enough.

"Long way to go, but at least we know we basically bolted the soft tyres on and with one set of softs on Sunday, it's going to be an easy transition, which is a good thing.

"It's good to beat Lowndesy too!"

Drops of rain sprinkled early in, but skies cleared quickly out at Sydney Motorsport Park.

"The rain on the window is not helping my confidence," Fabian Coulthard said over the radio at the time.

Meanwhile, McLaughlin's engineer Richard Hollway told him to press on and get a feel for the conditions in case the reappear in one of the weekend's races.

Earlier fast man Shane van Gisbergen was third for the session, with James Courtney, Nissan's Todd Kelly, Lowndes, James Moffat, Fabian Coulthard, Tim Slade and Michael Caruso top 10.

Others to note include Garth Tander 14, Chaz Mostert 17, Mark Winterbottom 18.

Click here for full results.

Back-to-back qualifying sessions will get underway at 12.30pm.