Walsh tops morning practice

Erebus ended the day's opening practice session on top with rookie Ash Walsh, while Scott McLaughlin finished buried in the tyres at turn 10.

His teammate David Wall had been off at the same spot earlier in the 15-minute practice at Hidden Valley, triggering an early red flag and causing delay to the session. However Wall recovered to record the fourth quickest time of the session, behind Walsh, Fabian Coulthard and Shane van Gisbergen.

Erebus Motorsport's Walsh said he was about eight tenths of a second quicker on the same set of tyres as yesterday, and praised his crew for the work put in overnight. He recorded a 1min06.3538 lap on the soft tyre, 0.012sec quicker than Coulthard, who suffered after incidents in both races yesterday.

"We had a rethink and [the car has] significantly improved," Walsh said.

"It's all about the hard work of the guys who gave me a quick car this morning.

"We're trying to settle the rear down - everyone's saying the same thing, at the entry of the corner the rear wants to come round because of the new surface."

Another rookie in Andre Heimgartner was the highest placed of the Prodrive cars, home in fifth ahead of Chaz Mostert, who now sits fourth in the Championship after penalties were handed down last night. David Reynolds and Mark Winterbottom followed, with James Courtney and Dale Wood completing the top 10.

The first Nissan to feature was Michael Caruso in 11th, with Red Bull's Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup down the order again in 22nd and 24th.

Click here for full practice results.

The V8 Supercars will qualify at 11.35am EST with a 20-minute session to determine the grid, before this afternoon's 200km race at 2.15pm.

Follow on FOX SPORTS 506, or watch the highlights on Ten at 4pm and One at 8.30pm.