McLaughlin fastest on opening morning at COTA

Fujitsu Racing GRM’s Scott McLaughlin emerged as the fastest man from an unusual opening morning of running at the Circuit of the Americas.

With just seven sets of tyres allocated for the weekend and no pre-marked rubber available at international events, drivers spent much of the morning learning the dry track on wets.

A 1:34.39s slick tyre effort from Fabian Coulthard proved enough to be quickest in Practice 1 ahead of James Moffat, Shane van Gisbergen, Jason Bright and Will Davison.

McLaughlin, who was one of several not to run slicks at all in the opening session, was the only man to lap faster than Coulthard’s benchmark in Practice 2 – eclipsing the marker by 0.17s.

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Van Gisbergen was second fastest in the second hit-out, a full 0.6s slower than McLaughlin. Alex Davison, Rick Kelly and Mark Winterbottom completed the top five.

In addition to the tyre situation, the competitive order was further muddled by a lack of policing of the track limits.

Practice 2 ran green for its duration and saw track temperatures climbing after early morning clouds cleared.

Practice 1 had been book-ended by red flags; the first was called after David Wall’s Holden stopped on its out-la with an oil pressure sensor issue.

The 30 minutes eventually elapsed under a second red flag, this time to retrieve Jonathon Webb’s Holden, which lost an oil line in spectacular fashion on the main straight. Both cars returned to the track for the second session.

Webb earlier had minor contact with James Moffat as the duo squabbled over track position – leaving a witness mark on the front-right corner of the Norton Nissan.

Two further practice sessions will compete the Friday action for the V8 Supercars in Austin.

See below for the full Practice 2 result

1	Fujitsu Racing GRM	Scott McLaughlin	Holden Commodore VF	1:34.2269
2	TEKNO Team VIP	Shane Van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore VF	1:34.8231	0:00.5962
3	Jeld-wen FPR Ford	Alex Davison	Ford Falcon FG	1:34.9586	0:00.7317
4	Jack Daniel’s Racing	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	1:34.9933	0:00.7664
5	Pepsi Max Crew FPR Ford	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG	1:35.0975	0:00.8706
6	ekol Racing	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore VF	1:35.3041	0:01.0772
7	Heavy Haulage Australia	Tim Slade	Mercedes E63 AMG	1:35.3736	0:01.1467
8	Tekno Autosports	Jonathon Webb	Holden Commodore VF	1:35.3760	0:01.1491
9	Norton 360 Racing	Michael Caruso	Nissan Altima	1:35.3853	0:01.1584
10	Pepsi Max Crew FPR Ford	Will Davison	Ford Falcon FG	1:35.3997	0:01.1728
11	Supercheap Auto Racing	Russell Ingall	Holden Commodore VF	1:35.5626	0:01.3357
12	Red Bull Racing Australia	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore VF	1:35.5815	0:01.3546
13	Norton 360 Racing	James Moffat	Nissan Altima	1:35.5864	0:01.3595
14	Jack Daniel’s Racing	Todd Kelly	Nissan Altima	1:35.6680	0:01.4411
15	Irwin Racing	Lee Holdsworth	Mercedes E63 AMG	1:35.7459	0:01.5190
16	Holden Racing Team	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore VF	1:35.8984	0:01.6715
17	Team HIFLEX	Tony D’Alberto	Holden Commodore VF	1:35.9417	0:01.7148
18	Red Bull Racing Australia	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore VF	1:35.9569	0:01.7300
19	Wilson Security Racing	David Wall	Holden Commodore VF	1:35.9605	0:01.7336
20	Wilson Security Racing	Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG	1:36.0215	0:01.7946
21	The Bottle-O FPR Ford	David Reynolds	Ford Falcon FG	1:36.1353	0:01.9084
22	Holden Racing Team	James Courtney	Holden Commodore VF	1:36.1394	0:01.9125
23	SP Tools Racing	Maro Engel	Mercedes E63 AMG	1:36.1806	0:01.9537
24	Wilson Security Racing	Tim Blanchard	Ford Falcon FG	1:36.5982	0:02.3713
25	Dodo Insurance Racing	Dean Fiore	Holden Commodore VF	1:36.7060	0:02.4791
26	Fujitsu Racing GRM	Alexandre Premat	Holden Commodore VF	1:38.3585	0:04.1316
27	Lockwood Racing	Fabian Coulthard	Holden Commodore VF	1:39.9461	0:05.7192
28	Team BOC	Jason Bright	Holden Commodore VF	1:42.5713	0:08.3444

See below for the full Practice 1 result

1	Lockwood Racing	Fabian Coulthard	Holden Commodore VF	1:34.3942R
2	Norton 360 Racing	James Moffat	Nissan Altima	1:34.8683	0:00.4741
3	TEKNO Team VIP	Shane Van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore VF	1:35.0242	0:00.6300
4	Team BOC	Jason Bright	Holden Commodore VF	1:35.4467	0:01.0525
5	Pepsi Max Crew FPR Ford	Will Davison	Ford Falcon FG	1:35.5319	0:01.1377
6	Jack Daniel’s Racing	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	1:35.6038	0:01.2096
7	Pepsi Max Crew FPR Ford	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG	1:35.7343	0:01.3401
8	Holden Racing Team	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore VF	1:35.9411	0:01.5469
9	ekol Racing	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore VF	1:35.9612	0:01.5670
10	Red Bull Racing Australia	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore VF	1:35.9783	0:01.5841
11	Norton 360 Racing	Michael Caruso	Nissan Altima	1:35.9818	0:01.5876
12	Tekno Autosports	Jonathon Webb	Holden Commodore VF	1:36.2647	0:01.8705
13	Jack Daniel’s Racing	Todd Kelly	Nissan Altima	1:36.3175	0:01.9233
14	Team HIFLEX	Tony D’Alberto	Holden Commodore VF	1:36.4096	0:02.0154
15	Heavy Haulage Australia	Tim Slade	Mercedes E63 AMG	1:36.4262	0:02.0320
16	Holden Racing Team	James Courtney	Holden Commodore VF	1:36.5406	0:02.1464
17	Jeld-wen FPR Ford	Alex Davison	Ford Falcon FG	1:36.6522	0:02.2580
18	SP Tools Racing	Maro Engel	Mercedes E63 AMG	1:36.7063	0:02.3121
19	Irwin Racing	Lee Holdsworth	Mercedes E63 AMG	1:36.9350	0:02.5408
20	Dodo Insurance Racing	Dean Fiore	Holden Commodore VF	1:36.9580	0:02.5638
21	Wilson Security Racing	Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG	1:37.0430	0:02.6488
22	Supercheap Auto Racing	Russell Ingall	Holden Commodore VF	1:37.5750	0:03.1808
23	Wilson Security Racing	Tim Blanchard	Ford Falcon FG	1:37.8873	0:03.4931
24	The Bottle-O FPR Ford	David Reynolds	Ford Falcon FG	1:39.7378	0:05.3436
25	Fujitsu Racing GRM	Scott McLaughlin	Holden Commodore VF	1:40.0155	0:05.6213
26	Red Bull Racing Australia	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore VF	1:41.4285	0:07.0343
27	Fujitsu Racing GRM	Alexandre Premat	Holden Commodore VF	1:43.3559	0:08.9617
	Wilson Security Racing	David Wall	Holden Commodore VF