DJR Team Penske’s Fabian Coulthard has topped the day’s second session as the sun set in Ipswich.
Coulthard was cautious about making big predictions, though his teammate Scott Pye was confident the Ford Falcon FG Xs would be quick at the team’s test track this weekend.
While both have been on the podium this season, neither have scored a win in 2016, though competitors predict it may not be far away.
Coulthard’s best was a 1min09.7061, bettering Ipswich expert Craig Lowndes by 0.0522 seconds in the last minutes of the hour-long session.
“We stuck to the plan – it’s so hard around here you never know where you’re at until you put a decent tyre on at the end of the day,” he said.
“It’s such a short track and you’re separated by tenths of seconds – so it’s not a bad way to end the day.
“It’s not a very fast time for this time of the day … the track’s not as grippy as we would have liked.”
After finishing the first session 22nd, Lowndes explained his TeamVortex squad was working on the car on old tyres, before bolting on greens at the end of the second.
“New tyres at the end and it really responded,” he said.
“We needed some tweaks on the new tyre but that’s what practice’s about … we’ll go back, analyse it and make it better for tomorrow.”
Chaz Mostert, who won his first ever Supercars race at Ipswich back in 2013 with DJR, finished the session third and also chases his first win of the season this weekend.
Rick Kelly and Chris Pither rounded out the top five, with defending champ Mark Winterbottom close behind.
Earlier fast man Michael Caruso was 16th while Jamie Whincup was 19th.
Erebus sub Craig Baird improved, finishing 24th and slotting in between Cam Waters and Garth Tander.
The Supercars have a final 15-minute practice session tomorrow at 11.55am local time.
