The Bend Supercars: McLaughlin lowers practice lap record

Racing

Scott McLaughlin smashed his own unofficial lap record in Practice 3 at The Bend, becoming the first driver to break into the 1m47s as he gapped the field by almost eight tenths.

The session had barely got going when it was red flagged for debris, Macauley Jones the culprit thanks to a run-in with a foam sign on the outside of the last corner.

To that point the quick man was Cam Waters, who had set a 1m49.720s on his opening run.

That time didn’t last long once the session restarted, McLaughlin firing straight to the top with a 1m48.931s.

Once in front, there was no stopping the runaway points leader. He lowered the benchmark to a 1m48.403s with 10 minutes to go, before logging a record-breaking 1m47.986s on his final run.

That left his margin over the field at a whopping 0.77s, Chaz Mostert the best of the rest with a 1m48.759s.

Anton De Pasquale was the top Commodore in the field, a 1m48.784s leaving him third quickest.

Tickford pair Waters and Lee Holdsworth were fourth and fifth quickest, followed by Scott Pye, Will Davison and Mark Winterbottom.

James Courtney capped off a promising morning for Walkinshaw Andretti United with P9, ahead of Brad Jones Racing pair Tim Slade and Jones.

It was another horror session for Triple Eight, with both Red Bull Holdens nowhere near the pace.

Shane van Gisbergen spent most of the first half of the session on the grass, with four separate offs. When he did finally piece together a lap it was only good enough for 20th.

Jamie Whincup’s session was a little less spectacular, but just as unsuccessful, the seven-time series champ just 24th quickest.

“We’re not in a good place,” said Whincup. “There’s no secrets, we have got a lot of work to do, we’re just trying to find a balance.

“We don’t have front, we don’t have rear and we just don’t have overall grip as well. So we have got a bit to do.

“There is hope that we can still tune it up for qualifying but we need to make the right calls. We need to make educated guesses and make right calls in the next hour or so.”

Cla#DriverCarTimeGapInterval
117 Scott McLaughlinFord Mustang GT1’47.9865   
255 Chaz MostertFord Mustang GT1’48.7594 0.7729 0.7729
399 Anton De PasqualeHolden Commodore ZB1’48.7844 0.7979 0.0250
46 Cameron WatersFord Mustang GT1’48.9334 0.9469 0.1490
55 Lee HoldsworthFord Mustang GT1’48.9920 1.0055 0.0586
62 Scott PyeHolden Commodore ZB1’48.9933 1.0068 0.0013
723 Will DavisonFord Mustang GT1’49.1473 1.1608 0.1540
818 Mark WinterbottomHolden Commodore ZB1’49.1759 1.1894 0.0286
922 James CourtneyHolden Commodore ZB1’49.2054 1.2189 0.0295
1014 Tim SladeHolden Commodore ZB1’49.2236 1.2371 0.0182
1121 Macauley JonesHolden Commodore ZB1’49.2534 1.2669 0.0298
1235 Todd HazelwoodHolden Commodore ZB1’49.2791 1.2926 0.0257
133 Garry JacobsonNissan Altima1’49.3341 1.3476 0.0550
147 Andre HeimgartnerNissan Altima1’49.3681 1.3816 0.0340
1512 Fabian CoulthardFord Mustang GT1’49.3970 1.4105 0.0289
169 David ReynoldsHolden Commodore ZB1’49.4303 1.4438 0.0333
1766 Thomas RandleFord Mustang GT1’49.5894 1.6029 0.1591
184 Jack SmithHolden Commodore ZB1’49.6247 1.6382 0.0353
1934 James GoldingHolden Commodore ZB1’49.6496 1.6631 0.0249
2097 Shane van GisbergenHolden Commodore ZB1’49.6618 1.6753 0.0122
2115 Rick KellyNissan Altima1’49.6645 1.6780 0.0027
2278 Simona de SilvestroNissan Altima1’49.7821 1.7956 0.1176
2319 Jack Le BrocqHolden Commodore ZB1’49.9971 2.0106 0.2150
2488 Jamie WhincupHolden Commodore ZB1’50.0142 2.0277 0.0171
258 Nick PercatHolden Commodore ZB1’50.1088 2.1223 0.0946
2633 Richie StanawayHolden Commodore ZB1’50.2410 2.2545 0.1322

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