Lowndes full of confidence after V8 practice
Craig Lowndes topped practice at Winton today
Craig Lowndes has ended the first day of V8 Supercars practice at Winton Motor Raceway on top of the time sheets after the four practice sessions.
The TeamVodafone driver set a time of 1:22.3376s, over a tenth of a second ahead of SP Tools driver Shane van Gisbergen. Rick Kelly was third in his Jack Daniel’s Racing Commodore VE.
Lowndes says that his early top spot fills him with confidence.
“It’s nice to be where we’re at right now,’ he said.
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“It give us great confidence to know that the car is great on the Sprint tyre. We don’t know where we’re exactly at compared to the rest, but it’s is really nice to have a good car balance.
“There’s a few little tweaks we have to make, but yeah, I’m coming in with a lot of confidence.”
Fourth went to Paul Dumbrell who set his time in the dying moments of the session ahead of Jamie Whincup (TeamVodafone), Fabian Coulthard (Bundaberg Red Racing), Will Davison (Toll HRT), Steven Johnson (Jim Beam Racing), Tim Slade (Wilson Security Racing) and Alex Davison (IRWIN Tools Racing).
Championship challenger James Courtney, driving for Jim Beam Racing, finished the final practice session down in 19th – although he did not use brand-new Sprint tyres in his sessions.
Qualifying for tomorrow’s 11th race of the V8 Supercars Championship Series will be held at 11.20am, followed by the top 10 shootout at 12.25pm and the race at 3.35pm.
V8 Supercars combined practice times – Winton Motor Raceway
| Pos | # | Driver | Time |
| 1 | 888 | Craig Lowndes | 1:22.3376* |
| 2 | 9 | Shane Van Gisbergen | 1:22.4910 |
| 3 | 15 | Rick Kelly | 1:22.6453 |
| 4 | 55 | Paul Dumbrell | 1:22.6837 |
| 5 | 1 | Jamie Whincup | 1:22.7976 |
| 6 | 24 | Fabian Coulthard | 1:22.8598 |
| 7 | 22 | Will Davison | 1:22.8697 |
| 8 | 17 | Steven Johnson | 1:22.9820 |
| 9 | 47 | Tim Slade | 1:23.0629 |
| 10 | 4 | Alex Davison | 1:23.1316 |
| 11 | 10 | Andrew Thompson | 1:23.1322 |
| 12 | 6 | Steven Richards | 1:23.1456 |
| 13 | 5 | Mark Winterbottom | 1:23.1947 |
| 14 | 2 | Garth Tander | 1:23.2270 |
| 15 | 51 | Greg Murphy | 1:23.2873 |
| 16 | 33 | Lee Holdsworth | 1:23.3023 |
| 17 | 12 | Dean Fiore | 1:23.3650 |
| 18 | 3 | Tony D’Alberto | 1:23.3838 |
| 19 | 30 | Daniel Gaunt | 1:23.4208 |
| 20 | 19 | Jonathon Webb | 1:23.4306 |
| 21 | 18 | James Courtney | 1:23.4720 |
| 22 | 39 | Russell Ingall | 1:23.6507 |
| 23 | 8 | Jason Richards | 1:23.7451 |
| 24 | 14 | Jason Bright | 1:23.7632 |
| 25 | 34 | Michael Caruso | 1:23.8364 |
| 26 | 11 | Jason Bargwanna | 1:23.9342 |
| 27 | 7 | Todd Kelly | 1:24.0273 |
| 28 | 21 | Karl Reindler | 1:24.3323 |
| 29 | 16 | Tony Ricciardello | 1:24.8117 |