Drivers' Quoteboard: Practice at Phillip Island

Alex Davison, Team JELD-WEN, p1: 

“It’s great – it’s only practice and I’m sure everyone’s running all sorts of different tyres, but we made big improvements to the car over the course of that session, which is satisfying itself because sometimes its easy to roll out of the truck with an ugly car and not put a dent in it, so we really made big improvements. By the end of the session it felt really good. 

“As I said, I’m well aware there are no trophies today, but it’s the first time I’ve been in the top three for Friday practice, so it has to be a good start to the weekend.”

Alexandre Premat, Fujitsu Racing GRM, p2: 

“It’s been a pretty good day, we had three sessions. It’s nice to be back on the race track with the new resurface, it’s been much faster. Straight away we had to learn the track again and tune the cars because it was very different to the previous years. We ended up in second position. It was pretty good with new tyres.

“I’d been held in the last sector by a Kelly car, but I could’ve been about 5-6 tenths quicker… Expectation is pretty high this weekend because the car’s good, I’m feeling pretty good and the car is good. Top 10 would be good and better would be the best.”

Craig Lowndes, Red Bull Racing Australia, p3: 

“We were chasing the rear of the car for the two sessions and we still need to find the flow.

“The grip level here is remarkable, they’ve done a fantastic job on the circuit itself but it’s caught us all out a little bit because we’re still fine tuning. Times will still fall as more rubber goes down over the weekend.  

“This weekend we can’t be too complacent about where we are in the Championship with not only Jamie but also Frosty and Will. Both of those guys have been pushing hard and watching them in the times today they were in the top end of the timesheet for most of the two practice sessions.”

Jason Bright, Team BOC, p4: 

"We lost a bit of time in my first practice session because we had a few problems and I wasn't happy with the car. We just had no flow. I think we rectified that for Practice Three; immediately the car was better so we were able to tune from there.

"I'm much happier with the car now. I think we're at least in the ball park but there's more to come. We've eliminated a lot of the problem but we've got tonight to really hone in on it. We've got a good direction.

"I was really looking forward to driving on the resurfaced track here this weekend because I heard it has a lot of grip but that's not much fun with under-steer and over-steer all over the place!"

Mark Winterbottom, Pepsi Max Crew FPR, p5 (via Twitter): 

“Not a bad day today. New Track surface changes the feel of this track but for the better. I wish all our tracks had this amount of grip.”

Tim Blanchard, Wilson Security DJR, p7: 

“The car has been good today. In P1 we struggled a bit, but made some big changes for the rest of the day and it improved it big time. From there we have been fine tuning it. Of course nobody really knows who is on what tyres, but we know what Chaz and the FPR cars are on, so it is a good gauge to where we are at here at Phillip Island. The track is a lot different now, the kerbs are different and of course the re surfacing has made a big difference.”

Michael Caruso, Norton Hornets, p8:

“It wasn’t a bad day. It’s nice to have a day of practice with no issues – it allowed us to really focus on the set-up and hopefully a smooth weekend.

“We’re not getting ahead of ourselves, though. We saw a few guys throw some tyres at it at the end and put down very fast times.

“Tomorrow, we’ll put our better set of tyres on and see where we actually fair for qualifying which will be very important.” 

Tim Slade, Heavy Haulage Australia Racing, p9 (via Twitter):

“Good fun on track today, new surface fast on the stopwatch but doesn't feel like it! P9, but work to do. 'Only' used 3 sets of tyres...” 

Scott Pye, Sargent Security Racing, p10 (via Twitter): 

“Good day today, finished up p10. No greens yet. Car feels good and circuit is pretty hooked up after resurfacing.”

Fabian Coulthard, Lockwood Racing, p11:

"I didn't put fresh tyres on at the end there because I've got a set that I can work with and feel changes on. I was afraid that putting new tyres on would mask that so we sacrificed today's best time for a good set-up base in tomorrow's fourth practice.

"Those tyres had done a lot of laps and were still pumping out low 1min32s at the end there so I'm optimistic for tomorrow. I think there are more improvements in the car.

"There's definitely more grip here since the circuit was resurfaced. Phillip Island is fun anyway with its fast, flowing corners but it's definitely an improvement. I'm looking forward to putting on better tyres and having a good old go."

Tony D’Alberto, Team HIFLEX, p12: 

“Very positive day for us. Coming into today no one knew how the weather was going to play out, so there were many question marks over tyres and which strategy to go with. Our strategy was to pretty much play it as it comes, and it turned out well for us and put up the top for much of the day. 

“Looking forward to tomorrow now, I can’t wait actually! We will come back full of confidence and aim to be up the front after qualifying; knowing we have a strong car out there.”

Jamie Whincup, Red Bull Racing Australia, p13: 

“We rolled out of the truck very slow but managed to make some big improvements throughout the day which was encouraging.

“We’re very thankful that we have another practice session tomorrow which is very rare for a Saturday so we’ll do our homework tonight and continue tuning the car. I’m confident that we can get there but it’s just going to be a long process.”

Chaz Mostert, Wilson Security DJR, p14: 

“A good run staying on the black stuff all day! Everyone is just getting used to the new surface today. It seems to be faster and the grip level is definitely higher. Through the day we have made good progress, in P2 we were up in the top five. We used a really good set of tyres in P2 and ran on that set through the last session. The times dropped off but the tyres are not going away, so it looks like a good package for the races.”

Shane van Gisbergen, Team TEKNO VIP, p16: 

“We weren’t that good with the set-up to start with, and were on pretty bad tyres, so were right down the bottom of the charts in the first session. Later on we got better, and more comfortable, but practice is definitely ruled by tyres at the moment. 

“The new elements to the track are awesome, this track is really cool. The grip is really good, I think I was near lap record pace down in 16th, so it’s great.” 

James Moffat, Norton Hornets, p18: 

“We struggled a bit today, to be honest.

“It’s an easy cop out to put our result just down to the tyres we were using, so I’m not prepared to do that. We definitely have a bit of work to do overnight.

“Caruso and his side of the garage have been strong all day. We need to look at what they’re doing differently and work on our set-up.

“We have another practice session in the morning, so that will help, but as Michael said, we’re bleeding a bit of time on the straights so that will make qualifying super important.”

James Courtney, Holden Racing Team, p19 (via Twitter): 

“Not a flash day for the #22 @holden_racing car. The boys are flat out looking for some more speed for us.”

Jonathon Webb, Team TEKNO Darrell Lea, p23: 

“It’s a pretty quiet day to start with only two sessions, but It’s been 12 months since we’ve here, and the track is definitely different, the kerbs have changed and the track has been resurfaced, but as far as having as much grip as I expected, it probably doesn’t. I thought we’d see a really big, significant change. In regards to times, we’re faster, but as far as feel in the car, it’s not as grippy as I thought it might be. 

“The base set-up we started with in the car wasn’t really in the ball park, where we needed to be, we had to work pretty hard in that first session to get something that was driveable, and then in session two we got closer, but I just concentrated on a longer run and getting comfortable with the car and getting used to the new track. It was more about finding more speed in me rather than chasing the car so much this afternoon.”

Garth Tander, Holden Racing Team, p24 (via Twitter): 

“Bit to do tonight for the #2 @holden_racing machine, few balance issues to tidy up. Boys are on it. Only used one set of old tyres today...”

Scott McLaughlin, Fujitsu Racing GRM, p26: 

“Pretty good day for us today. The results don’t show it, but we were on a pretty good lap at the end there, that would’ve probably put us in that top group somewhere. But there was a power steering failure and I had to pull into the pits. Luckily it didn’t happen in qualifying or anything, Very happy to have it over and done with now hopefully and move on to tomorrow. 

“Car feels pretty good – race pace and qualy pace – and I think a good road ahead of us hopefully, just try and get some point and we’ll be right. 

“Good first day.”

From the teams

Ross Stone, Erebus Motorsport V8 general manager:

"Certainly the grip level is up, but how to adjust the car to the track is different to what we had anticipated.

"Although the lap record was broken today, I believe everyone was anticipating even faster times.

"Across our three cars we made plenty of changes - certainly more than anticipated with the base set-up that we brought.

"The used tyre bank was pretty critical today and some of the guys up front on the time sheets obviously had better rubber to use.

"Looking ahead we have some work to do overnight ahead of another 30 minutes practice before qualifying. We remain confident that we will get the cars in the window for qualifying and the races."