Mostert avoids major scare, Waters paces final Adelaide practice

A high-speed near-miss for Chaz Mostert has headlined final practice at the bp Adelaide Grand Final, which was paced by Cam Waters.

While Waters stole top spot at the death, attention midway through the session was on championship contender Mostert, who after going fastest early on, clipped the inside wall at the fast sweeper and clouted the outside wall.

Quick repairs by Walkinshaw Andretti United got Mostert back out for a systems check in the final minutes, with the two-time Bathurst winner ending up 20th.

Title contender Kai Allen was an impressive second ahead of points leader Broc Feeney, with reigning champion Will Brown 10th. All told, Waters, Allen and Feeney were covered by 0.057s.

Cars rolled out under gloomy skies, with forecast showers threatening. Feeney (1:20.6147s) and Brown (1:20.63693s) opened proceedings, before Mostert (1:19.8449s) and Anton De Pasquale (1:19.8287s) fired into the 1:19s on their second laps.

After Cooper Murray (1:19.6751s) and Brodie Kostecki (1:19.7120s) improved, Mostert (1:19.4605s) and David Reynolds (1:19.4968s) ended the first runs on top. Thomas Randle, meanwhile, saved a half-spin at Turn 4 and gently nudged the barriers.

Allen kicked off the second runs with a 1:19.5853s, before Mostert lit up the time sheets in the first sector. However, Mostert clipped the inside barrier at Turn 8 and clouted the outside wall, before limping back to pit lane.

"I didn't expect to go on my first flyer, I've been struggling a little bit with the balance at Turn 8, but that tyre really livened it up a bit," Mostert said in pit lane.

"I'd rather get my little scrape with the wall done nice and early in the weekend, but I'm just glad that I saved it a little bit... I obviously hurt the car a bit, but it could've been a lot worse."

Allen (1:19.4628s) and De Pasquale (1:19.4843s) both improved, before Ryan Wood unseated his teammate with a 1:19.4096s.

With nine minutes remaining, De Pasquale reset the number to a 1:19.1471s, and lowered it on the following lap with a 1:19.1340s. Randle and Percat, meanwhile, jumped up with 1:19.4456s and 1:19.3793s respectively.

Into the final six minutes, Waters moved to third with a 1:19.1721s, before Murray jumped to fourth with a 1:19.2892s. Brown moved from 16th to seventh, before Feeney was first into the 1:18s with a 1:18.9830s.

Kostecki slotted in just behind Feeney with a 1:19.0134s, before Allen blazed to the top with a 1:18.8329s. However, the Penrite Racing driver's glory was short-lived, as Thursday fast man Waters nailed a 1:18.7884s to go fastest of all.

After the field recorded a whopping 86 combined kerb strikes at the Senna Chicane on Thursday afternoon, Friday morning's session featured just 48 strikes as drivers continued to push the limits. Reynolds was the chief repeat offender with five strikes, with Murray, Wood, Jack Le Brocq and Waters picking up four each.

Randle, De Pasquale, Matt Payne, Kostecki, Reynolds, Andre Heimgartner and Brown rounded out the top 10, with the 24 full-timers covered by 0.9s. Wildcard Austin Cindric brought up the rear with a 1:21.0072s.

Supercars return to the track for Boost Mobile Qualifying at 12:40pm local/1:10pm AEDT, which sets the grid for Race 32 at 4:20pm/4:50pm. Tickets for the event are on sale.