Craig Lowndes on top at Eastern Creek

Craig Lowndes has ended the inaugural pre-season Eastern Creek test day on top of the pile, after a blistering lap on Sprint Tyres in the afternoon session.

The TeamVodafone driver’s 1:30.1877s lap saw him 0.6s faster than fellow Holden driver Michael Caruso.

Jason Bright was third fastest, while Jason Richards also enjoyed a second behind the wheel of the BOC Commodore during the afternoon.

Caruso’s Fujitsu Racing team-mate was fourth, with Tony D’Alberto, Jason Bargwanna, Garth Tander, Mark  Winterbottom, Dean Fiore and Jonathan Webb rounding out the top 10.

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At the end of the day, Lowndes said he was surprised to have emerged with the fastest time.

“It’s nice to be back in the car. To do the time we’ve done is pretty surprising actually,” he said.

“We didn’t struggle, but we didn’t know where our true pace was. Then we put on some soft tyres and away we went – and the car just hooked up unbelievably.

“I didn’t know whether the dash was lying to me but when the lap time came up it was pretty special. It’s nice to have speed but it’s a track we don’t race at.

“I’m really looking forward to Abu Dhabi. We had a good run there last year, we had a one-two with the team with the first time we had the Holdens out running.

“We’ve got good memories of the circuit and hopefully from today we’ve got a lot of good information now to carry on.

“We’ve got to start the season off a lot better than we’ve done in the past. The last three years we’ve generally played catch-up mid-season and we’ve always caught up but never got across the line.

“If we maintain the momentum from the end of last year into this year I think it will be a good year.”

Soft tyres were allowed from 2pm onwards. With no new soft tyres allocated, the times generally reflect the condition of the Sprint Tyres that each driver had available.

Prior to 2pm, Shane van Gisbergen had led the afternoon session, ahead of James Courtney, Karl Reindler, Garth Tander and Rick Kelly.

See below for the final positions from Session 2 (main drivers listed)

1	888	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore VE2	1:30.1877
2	34	Michael Caruso	Holden Commodore VE2	1:30.7552	0:00.5675
3	8	Jason Bright	Holden Commodore VE2	1:31.0567	0:00.8690
4	33	Lee Holdsworth	Holden Commodore VE2	1:31.3764	0:01.1887
5	3	Tony D’Alberto	Holden Commodore VE2	1:31.5306	0:01.3429
6	14	Jason Bargwanna	Holden Commodore VE2	1:31.5983	0:01.4106
7	2	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore VE2	1:31.6048	0:01.4171
8	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG	1:31.7871	0:01.5994
9	12	Dean Fiore	Ford Falcon FG	1:31.8212	0:01.6335
10	19	Jonathon Webb	Ford Falcon FG	1:31.8624	0:01.6747
11	4	Alex Davison	Ford Falcon FG	1:31.8991	0:01.7114
12	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore VE2	1:31.9481	0:01.7604
13	11	Greg Murphy	Holden Commodore VE2	1:31.9532	0:01.7655
14	16	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore VE2	1:31.9753	0:01.7876
15	49	Steve Owen	Holden Commodore VE2	1:32.0869	0:01.8992
16	1	James Courtney	Holden Commodore VE2	1:32.1090	0:01.9213
17	39	Russell Ingall	Holden Commodore VE2	1:32.3193	0:02.1316
18	17	Steven Johnson	Ford Falcon FG	1:32.4046	0:02.2169
19	6	Will Davison	Ford Falcon FG	1:32.4532	0:02.2655
20	9	Shane Van Gisbergen	Ford Falcon FG	1:32.5928	0:02.4051
21	30	Warren Luff	Holden Commodore VE2	1:32.6106	0:02.4229
22	47	Tim Slade	Ford Falcon FG	1:32.6204	0:02.4327
23	7	Todd Kelly	Holden Commodore VE2	1:32.6519	0:02.4642
24	21	Karl Reindler	Holden Commodore VE2	1:32.7584	0:02.5707
25	15	Rick Kelly	Holden Commodore VE2	1:32.7888	0:02.6011
26	18	James Moffat	Ford Falcon FG	1:32.8920	0:02.7043
27	61	Fabian Coulthard	Holden Commodore VE2	1:33.0692	0:02.8815
28	55	Paul Dumbrell	Ford Falcon FG	1:34.3309	0:04.1432