Will Davison has paced Practice 1 with a flyer at the death at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500.
Davison ended the first Gold Coast Supercars session in 1097 days atop the standings.
The Shell V-Power Racing Team driver vaulted to the top as the chequered flag flew.
Click here for Practice 1 results
Davison unseated series leader Shane van Gisbergen, who led for the majority of the 30-minute session.
Van Gisbergen, who can secure the title as early as Saturday, was edged to top spot by Davison by just 0.01s.
Cam Waters, the only driver who can stop van Gisbergen winning the title, was third.
Davison was the first driver into the 1:11s with a 1:11.650s ahead of Waters.
Van Gisbergen jumped to top spot, albeit by 0.05s, with a 1:11.593s.
Waters briefly held top spot with a 1:11.479s before van Gisbergen clocked a 1:11.240s to hold sway.
Several drivers pushed the limits of the concrete-lined street circuit, with Davison and David Reynolds bowling early wides at Turn 1.
Thomas Randle and Andre Heimgartner ran long at Turn 11, while Lee Holdsworth scraped the wall exiting the beach chicane.
Van Gisbergen also loomed to undercut his personal best, before he picked up a kerb strike.
With Scott McLaughlin watching on from the Shell V-Power garage, Davison turned up the wick late on.
Davison jumped to second with a 1:11.409s before improving with a 1:11.221s to demote van Gisbergen.
Waters was third all told, albeit 0.25s behind, with Chaz Mostert and Mark Winterbottom fourth and fifth.
Reynolds was sixth ahead of Nick Percat, Anton De Pasquale and Heimgartner, with Jack Le Brocq rounding out the top 10.
Gold Coast local Broc Feeney, a Surfers Supercars rookie, completed the most laps in the session with 19 tours.
The top 20 drivers were covered by 0.81s.
Cars will return to the track for Practice 2 at 3:15pm local time.