Randle fastest as Jones crash ends Practice 1

Thomas Randle has topped opening practice at the VALO Adelaide 500, in a session ended by a crash for Macauley Jones.

Red flags flew with one minute from the scheduled end of Practice 1 after Jones crashed at Turn 8.

Replays showed Jones hitting the wall at the fast sweeper, before pulling up at Turn 9.

It came amid a flurry of fast times as drivers bolted on green tyres.

Randle was one of a number of drivers to set a flyer in the final runs before Jones crashed.

Brodie Kostecki was second for Erebus Motorsport, with Cam Waters sneaking into third.

Champion-elect Shane van Gisbergen was fourth, having missed a final run.

It was the first Supercars session in Adelaide in 1012 days — since February 2020 — and the first since major resurfacing works were completed.

The circuit has been resurfaced from Turn 9 to Turn 7.

Drivers turned up the wick immediately, and the session ended with Randle having left the Practice 1 benchmark in 2020 for dead.

David Reynolds clocked a 1:20.686s in the first session in 2020 — Randle’s time on Thursday was a 1:19.803s.

Kostecki and Waters were within 0.07s of Randle’s session-topping time.

“The red flag came out at a good time, when I did my lap,” Randle said.

“I don’t know how many other people did a lap, I think Cam got a lap in.

“Just a credit to the whole team at Tickford Racing.

“The hardest thing for me was braking at the [Turn 9] hairpin.

"You start braking on the old surface, then halfway through it changes to the new surface.

“There’s a bump there, there’s quite a lot of grip.

“It’s not qualifying yet, it’s only practice, won’t put all my eggs in one basket yet.”

Scott Pye led the early running with a 1:20.612s, before van Gisbergen put a margin on the field with a 1:20.257s.

Pye returned to the top with 10 minutes remaining with a 1:20.255s, albeit by 0.0018s over van Gisbergen.

Several drivers pushed the envelope — notably, Waters bowled a wide at Turn 9, and Lee Holdsworth at Turn 4.

Waters and Holdsworth recovered and ended up third and ninth respectively.

Van Gisbergen was first into the 1:19s with four minutes to go with a 1:19.972s.

Kostecki, Randle and Waters pushed him to fourth once Jones clouted the wall.

Jones’ Brad Jones Racing teammate Andre Heimgartner was fifth ahead of Pye, with Bryce Fullwood seventh.

Mark Winterbottom made it two Team 18 Commodores in the top 10, with Will Brown 10th.

Shell V-Power Racing Team teammates Anton De Pasquale and Will Davison were 14th and 17th respectively.

Chaz Mostert was 12th behind Walkinshaw Andretti United teammate Nick Percat.

The top 17 drivers were covered by 0.99s.

Cars will return to the Adelaide Parklands Circuit for Practice 2 on Friday at 1:15pm local time.

Friday’s schedule will also feature ARMOR ALL Qualifying for Race 33 at 5:35pm.