Waters leads Mostert, Davison in Practice 1

Cameron Waters has pipped Chaz Mostert in a tight opening practice session at the Repco Bathurst 1000.

Waters set an identical lap time to his flyer which helped him top the corresponding session in 2020.

Mostert and Will Davison were second and third respectively, with the top three covered by just 0.115s.

James Courtney, Mark Winterbottom, Tim Slade and 2021 champion-elect Shane van Gisbergen filled positions four through seven.

Mount Panorama had already seen two full days of action before Supercars took to the track on Thursday morning.

However, the flyers had to wait; just four minutes had elapsed in the session once the stricken car of Macauley Jones triggered a red flag.

Jones pulled his #96 Coca-Cola entry to the side of the circuit exiting The Cutting.

The Jones Commodore haemorrhaged smoke, with the car suffering a suspected power steering issue.

At the time of the stoppage, only Will Davison had set a time, albeit an unrepresentative 2:09.337s.

Jones returned to the session in the closing minutes and was 23rd after the 60 minutes had elapsed.

Kostecki emerged as the fast man after the session restarted; he clocked the first laps in the 2:06s and 2:05s brackets.

Through the first runs, Kostecki led Hazelwood and Mostert, with the latter jumping into second through 28 minutes.

It would be until the final 15 minutes where fast times began to emerge.

Waters vaulted to the top on a 2:05.492s, before Mostert went fastest in every sector on the 48-minute mark to put a margin on the field.

Mostert recorded a 2:05.107s to put 0.385s on nearest rival Waters, with Hazelwood moving to third on a 2:05.538s.

With four minutes remaining, Winterbottom jumped 15 positions to second, coming to within 0.3s of Mostert.

Waters returned to the track in the closing minutes and went purple in the first sector, before reeling off a 2:05.023s to put 0.084s on Mostert.

Remarkably, Waters also recorded a 2:05.023s in the corresponding session last year.

Waters' time, however, was a fair way off the 2:04.674s lap that Whincup posted in Practice 1 of the 2019 event.

Slade and van Gisbergen jumped into fourth and fifth respectively late on; van Gisbergen returned for a second flyer, only to run long at The Chase.

Courtney moved up 17 positions on a 2:05.368s into third, before he was immediately unseated by Davison after the chequered flag flew.

Supercars will return to the track on Thursday for Additional Drivers only Practice 2 at 4:25pm AEDT. Click here to view the track schedule.

Every session of the event will be broadcast live on Foxtel (Fox Sports 503) and streamed on Kayo.

The Seven Network will provide live free to air coverage of the event. Tickets for the event are on sale now.