Mark Winterbottom fastest in opening Symmons practice

Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom has shown the way in the first of three V8 Supercars practice sessions for the day at Symmons Plains.

Finding himself in the bottom 50 percent of the championship due to a gearbox failure in the opening race of the season in Adelaide, Winterbottom set his best time of 52.41s at the 22 minute mark of the half hour, 16 car, session.

The time eclipsed the best effort of Garth Tander by by 0.09s. The Holden Racing Team driver had held sway at the top of the sheets for much of the going.

Brad Jones Racing team-mates Fabian Coulthard and Jason Bright subsequently split the factory pilots by jumping to second and third respectively inside the final minute.

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Bright had earlier complained of braking inconsistency with his Team BOC Holden, and was one of several to run off at the Turn 4 hairpin.

Alex Davison, Scott McLaughlin, David Reynolds, Scott Pye, Dean Fiore and Todd Kelly completed the top 10.

As expected, teams punctuated their track running with long stints in the garage for set-up changes. The top four drivers each completed between 19 and 21 laps of the sub 60 second venue over the 30 minutes.

The driver who spent the most time in pitlane was Lee Holdsworth, who pulled his Erebus Mercedes into its garage after just three laps with an electrical problem. The car did not return to the track prior to the chequered flag.

There was minor drama too for Dean Fiore, who had the rear windscreen of his Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport Holden blow out on the back straight. The perspex came to rest safely on the infield.

UPDATE: All teams will be required to screw in their rear screens, rather than just use the bonding agent, this weekend following the Fiore incident.

The first full-field session of the weekend will kick-off at 1215 local time, with a third and final practice of the day scheduled for 1330.

See below for the Practice 1 result

1	Pepsi Max Crew FPR Ford	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG	0:52.4095
2	Lockwood Racing	Fabian Coulthard	Holden Commodore VF	0:52.4201	0:00.0106
3	Team BOC	Jason Bright	Holden Commodore VF	0:52.4667	0:00.0572
4	Holden Racing Team	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore VF	0:52.4989	0:00.0894
5	Jeld-wen FPR Ford	Alex Davison	Ford Falcon FG	0:52.5531	0:00.1436
6	Fujitsu Racing GRM	Scott McLaughlin	Holden Commodore VF	0:52.5978	0:00.1883
7	The Bottle-O FPR Ford	David Reynolds	Ford Falcon FG	0:52.6776	0:00.2681
8	ekol Racing	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore VF	0:52.6892	0:00.2797
9	Dodo Insurance Racing	Dean Fiore	Holden Commodore VF	0:52.7735	0:00.3640
10	Jack Daniel’s Racing	Todd Kelly	Nissan Altima	0:52.7944	0:00.3849
11	SP Tools Racing	Maro Engel	Mercedes E63 AMG	0:53.0218	0:00.6123
12	Norton 360 Racing	Michael Caruso	Nissan Altima	0:53.0614	0:00.6519
13	Heavy Haulage Racing	Tim Slade	Mercedes E63 AMG	0:53.2339	0:00.8244
14	Wilson Security Racing	Jonny Reid	Ford Falcon FG	0:53.2929	0:00.8834
15	Wilson Security Racing	Tim Blanchard	Ford Falcon FG	0:53.3002	0:00.8907
16	Irwin Racing	Lee Holdsworth	Mercedes E63 AMG	0:54.2112	0:01.8017

See below for Speedcafe.com’s event preview video from Symmons Plains