Coulthard tops tight opening Darwin practice

Fabian Coulthard edged fellow Holden drivers James Courtney and Jason Bright to the fastest time in the opening practice session for the V8 Supercars at Hidden Valley Raceway.

The Lockwood Commodore’s 1:10.55s best came at the 13 minute mark of the 20 minute session, eclipsing Courtney’s previous benchmark by 0.03s.

Coulthard’s Brad Jones Racing team-mate Jason Bright was just 0.02s further adrift in second, while early pace-setter Jamie Whincup made it a Holden sweep of the top four places.

The strong start to the weekend for Coulthard comes as BJR continues to evaluate a suspension upgrade first trailed at a pre-event test day.

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Will Davison put his Mercedes fifth fastest, while a late effort from Scott McLaughlin saw his Volvo in sixth.

Typically hot and sunny conditions greeted the teams for the session, with the ambient pushing 30 degrees.

Teams have 12 tyres to use across the day, made up of two sets of pre-marked tyres and one new set.

The second session will kick-off at 1245 local time.

PRACTICE 1 

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Car	Time	Difference
1	14	Fabian Coulthard	Lockwood Racing	Holden Commodore VF	1:10.5465
2	22	James Courtney	Holden Racing Team	Holden Commodore VF	1:10.5760	0:00.0295
3	8	Jason Bright	Team BOC	Holden Commodore VF	1:10.5988	0:00.0523
4	1	Jamie Whincup	Red Bull Racing Australia	Holden Commodore VF	1:10.6933	0:00.1468
5	9	Will Davison	Erebus Motorsport V8	Mercedes E63 AMG	1:10.8247	0:00.2782
6	33	Scott McLaughlin	Valvoline Racing GRM	Volvo S60	1:10.8928	0:00.3463
7	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Pepsi Max Crew	Ford Falcon FG	1:10.9038	0:00.3573
8	16	Scott Pye	Wilson Security Racing	Ford Falcon FG	1:10.9114	0:00.3649
9	97	Shane Van Gisbergen	Team Tekno VIP Petfoods	Holden Commodore VF	1:10.9347	0:00.3882
10	7	Todd Kelly	Jack Daniel’s Racing	Nissan Altima	1:10.9744	0:00.4279
11	15	Rick Kelly	Jack Daniel’s Racing	Nissan Altima	1:11.0721	0:00.5256
12	4	Lee Holdsworth	Erebus Motorsport V8	Mercedes E63 AMG	1:11.1292	0:00.5827
13	47	Tim Slade	Supercheap Auto Racing	Holden Commodore VF	1:11.1609	0:00.6144
14	23	Russell Ingall	Repair Management Aust Racing	Holden Commodore VF	1:11.1660	0:00.6195
15	18	Jack Perkins	Team JELD-WEN	Ford Falcon FG	1:11.1729	0:00.6264
16	17	David Wall	Wilson Security Racing	Ford Falcon FG	1:11.2005	0:00.6540
17	888	Craig Lowndes	Red Bull Racing Australia	Holden Commodore VF	1:11.2404	0:00.6939
18	6	Chaz Mostert	Ford Pepsi Max Crew	Ford Falcon FG	1:11.2459	0:00.6994
19	360	James Moffat	Norton Hornets	Nissan Altima	1:11.3058	0:00.7593
20	36	Michael Caruso	Norton Hornets	Nissan Altima	1:11.3086	0:00.7621
21	2	Garth Tander	Holden Racing Team	Holden Commodore VF	1:11.3131	0:00.7666
22	55	David Reynolds	The Bottle-O Racing Team	Ford Falcon FG	1:11.4186	0:00.8721
23	222	Nick Percat	Walkinshaw Racing	Holden Commodore VF	1:11.5736	0:01.0271
24	21	Dale Wood	Team Advam/GB	Holden Commodore VF	1:11.6165	0:01.0700
25	34	Robert Dahlgren	Valvoline Racing GRM	Volvo S60	1:11.7166	0:01.1701