Pecking order questions as drivers come to grips

The night practice session in Sydney delivered a surprise result, but the pecking order could change come qualifying, which is set to be held in dramatically different conditions.

Rookie Ryan Wood topped the 90-minute session on Friday night, with Walkinshaw Andretti United getting both drivers in the top three.

The session was held under cool skies in Sydney’s west, commencing at 5:00pm AEST and concluding at 6:30pm. Come Saturday, and drivers will roll out for a 15-minute Boost Mobile Qualifying session at 2:50pm.

Drivers battled to get their Dunlop Soft tyres up to temperature on Friday night, but with qualifying earlier on Saturday, different conditions — including more UV — will play a role.

UV breaks down the rubber laid down on the circuit, and as a consequence, there's less rubber and, thus, less grip — something that was already a challenge in Sydney.

Additionally, winds up to 36km/h are expected from midday, creating another challenge for drivers and engineers.

Chaz Mostert, who was third and just 0.08s behind Wood, also suggested several drivers didn’t get their final runs in, further muddying the order.

“It's super tight, a lot of guys probably didn’t quite get their run in in the end,” Mostert said.

“Just cold temps, just really struggled to get the tyres in.”

Drivers hand tyres back after practice, but drivers still battled to get a read, Broc Feeney saying: "I felt like we got through our test program pretty well. We made a lot of changes and felt pretty competitive.

"But we put another set of tyres on and really struggled, however when we went to the race allocation, it was a bit better. So, a bit of a mix in that mid-to-end part."

Drivers didn’t get a night practice session at last year’s Sydney event, with the field rolling out for two 30-minute sessions on the Saturday morning.

The fastest time from the two 2023 sessions was a 1:29.9131s. Wood’s benchmark on Friday night, meanwhile, was a 1:30.5842s.

“The night time was really cold, so to get the tyres turned on was really hard,” said Mark Winterbottom, who was 14th.

"I think we'll take away some definitely good things from today and try and qualify well tomorrow.

Tim Slade, who was 18th, added: “On the green tyre I had no grip… the lap we did at the start on our second run was our fastest for the session, so we have a bit of head scratching to do as to what is happening on the green.”

Supercars will return to the track on Saturday for Boost Mobile Qualifying at 2:50pm AEST, which will set the running order for the Top Ten Shootout at 4:55pm. The first 200km night race of the weekend, the 51-lap Race 15, will commence at 7:35pm.