F1-style practice for Perth SuperSprint

The upcoming Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint will feature a rarity at Supercars rounds — a single practice session.

Supercars will be on track on all three days of the April 28-30 event, along with the Dunlop Series, GT World Challenge Australia and WA Historic Touring Cars.

Friday’s action headlined by a single 90-minute practice session for the Repco Supercars Championship.

The session ensures teams will be able to make car changes in-session, much like pre-season testing.

From there, teams will head straight into knockout ARMOR ALL Qualifying on Saturday, which will set the grid for the first 42-lap sprint.

The Perth track surface is the most abrasive on the Supercars calendar, and will offer the greatest competitive challenge yet for the new Gen3 cars.

However, with just one practice session — albeit at 90 minutes — to play with, drivers and teams can ill afford incidents or reliability issues.

“It’ll be interesting to see what it’s like when we go there with the Gen3 cars,” Tickford Racing’s Thomas Randle told The Driver’s Seat radio program.

“It’s not a long track, but it’s got a lot of elevation, and the way you’ve got to drive into ’the bowl’ [Turn 6]. It’s quite a challenging track.

“We’ve already noticed with these cars… your inputs need to be more finite, there’s more finessing behind the wheel.

“Any slide that you have in race mode, you’re going to wear the tyres out.

"Another challenge is that we’ve only got one practice session, but it’s an hour-and-a-half.

“It’s kind of like an F1 session — you’re out there for one-and-a-half hours of practice.

“Then, that’s it — after that, you’re into qualifying."

The 2023 Repco Supercars Championship will resume at the Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint on April 28-30.

Bosch Power Tools Perth SuperSprint: Session times

All times AWST

Friday, April 28

Saturday, April 29

Sunday, April 30