Kostecki tops head-scratching Townsville practice

Brodie Kostecki has topped a bizarre practice session in Townsville that started 20 minutes late, finished just shy of two minutes early under a red flag, and left drivers and engineers scratching their heads before Boost Mobile Qualifying.

With just one 45-minute practice session for the weekend, time was of the essence for all 26 drivers, and especially for wildcard entrants Reuben Goodall and Aaron Seton.

Kostecki immediately put any lingering questions about his fitness to bed when he led the running through the opening run of the session on a 1:13.6835s, 0.08s up on Will Brown.

That marker stood for the balance of the session, with unhappy drivers and mass set-up changes the story of the 45-minute session.

Some faced teething issues when they rolled out of the truck, Cameron Hill held in pit lane as he had a cool suit hiccup, whilst Thomas Randle complained that his Mustang was pulling to the left under brakes.

An all-Ford top five was broken up by Anton De Pasquale with half an hour remaining in the session, the new-look Cub Cadet Camaro moving to third, though the most recent Supercars race winner was complaining of rear instability on corner entry.

The top end of town would retain status quo as teams threw all manner of changes at the cars, Andre Heimgartner's big slide at Turn 6 proving that track conditions weren't getting much better.

Chaz Mostert had early rear brake complaints in his #1 Toyota, but did manage to jump from 10th to eighth as the session entered the final 10 minutes.

Another to impress was debutant Goodall, who rose to 11th in the #5 Tickford Mustang having thrown green tyres on earlier in the session.

Erebus' Cooper Murray was the first to have a crack in the final happy hour stage, rising to sixth in the #99 TotalEnergies Chevrolet, before the rest of the field rolled out for their qualifying simulations.

However, there wouldn't be a final qualifying run, as Jack Le Brocq suffered a steering failure at the Turn 7/8 chicane, with the #4 Sherrin Rentals Camaro coming to rest on the outside of the circuit.

With just a minute and 40 seconds remaining on the clock, the session was declared early, with Kostecki leading Brown, De Pasquale, Matt Payne, and Broc Feeney.

Boost Mobile Qualifying begins at 12:55pm AEST, before Race 20 commences at 4:15pm.