Frosty finds the tyres

Championship leader Mark Winterbottom has had a troubled start to the Coates Hire Sydney 500, finding the tyre wall at turn one in the first practice session.

The Pepsi Max driver was comfortably running in the top 10, but lost the rear of his FG X and thumped the drivers’ side into the tyres with just under 10 minutes remaining in the half-hour session.

He confirmed it was just cosmetic damage for the #5, which the crew has already started working on.

“We made a little change, she was a bit loose,” Winterbottom said.

“It wasn’t a big hit, just pushed the panels in … went a bit deep, thought I had a bit more grip than I did. When it goes around you’re a passenger and the tyre wall comes pretty quick.”

He finished the session tenth, with TEKNO’s Shane van Gisbergen quickest with a 1min28.6455 lap.

Championship chaser Craig Lowndes was 13th and pleased with the feel of his Red Bull Racing Commodore.

“You’ve got to be nice, careful and easy, and build up to it – you don’t want to be too eager, this place will bite you if you are,” Lowndes said of the tricky street circuit.

Tim Blanchard also found the tyres at turn one with less than five minutes remaining, a bit of work for his CoolDrive team to do. “It’s done a fair bit of damage,” he said.

Behind van Gisbergen it was Scott Pye and David Reynolds in the first run at the Sydney Olympic Park circuit.

Stand ins Steve Owen, Alex Davison and Jack Perkins filled the  three of the last four spots as they adjust back into the V8 Supercars. 

Click here for full results.

Two more half hour runs remain this afternoon.