Luff – in the Holden Racing Team Commodore crashed by Garth Tander on Thursday – lost the rear at turn two and collided with Lowndes.

Both went hard into the tyre barriers, with Lowndes’ impact sending the Red Bull Commodore into the air while Luff’s tumbled onto the roof.

Lowndes ran to the #2 to help his co-driver from last year out of the car, and gave him a hug once he was safely out of the car.

Both cars had qualified for this afternoon’s ARMOR ALL Top 10 Shootout – but will now be in doubt for the 5.10pm start.

Lowndes’ co-driver Steven Richards watched on from the pits.

“The way this weekend can pan out – look, that actually looks bad, but hopefully it’s not as bad as we think,” Richards said.

“Hopefully get it fixed up and we might even make the Shootout.

“You’ve just got to roll with these days, we’ve been here long enough to know what happens.

“What do you do, you’ve just got to keep looking forwards … Clearly Luffy didn’t do anything on purpose, he didn’t want to be hanging out on the fence – we’re all looking after each other’s best interests.”

Todd Kelly has also just ploughed into the wall, with rear end damage on the Nissan in the garage; as well as a throttle sensor failure in the #34 Volvo early in the session, which has now been replaced.

More to come from Mount Panorama.

Mark Winterbottom leads Dale Wood at the top of the times for practice.