Caruso/Fiore top Sandown 500 warm-up

The Calsonic Nissan of Michael Caruso and Dean Fiore topped the times in the final warm-up ahead of the Wilson Security Sandown 500.

The 20-minute session provided teams an opportunity to complete final preparations, including driver changes, before this afternoon’s Pirtek Enduro Cup opener.

Caruso posted a 1:08.860s to top the session with the #23 Altima 0.09s faster than the Red Bull Holden of Shane van Gisbergen and Matt Campbell.

“(It all felt) reasonably okay, obviously we made some changes overnight,” said Caruso.

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“If it was qualifying and that was what we needed to do today, but look 500 kilometres is a long way to go.

“It is good to feel that the car is there and you know, obviously it is going to come down to a lot more than having a fast car for one lap.”

The #88 Triple Eight Holden was third fastest with Jamie Whincup setting the time in the car he is sharing with Paul Dumbrell.

The top six was completed by the #7 Todd Kelly/Jack Le Brocq (Nissan), James Courtney/Jack Perkins (Mobil 1 HSV Racing) and the Mark Winterbottom/Steve Owen Prodrive Ford.

The session was not without incident with Prodrive’s Cameron Waters and Shell V-Power Racing’s Fabian Coulthard involved in a feisty dice.

Pole sitters Waters and Richie Stanaway ended the hit out in seventh, while Coulthard and co-driver Tony D’Alberto was tenth behind DJR Team Penske team-mates Scott McLaughlin and Alex Premat.

Stewards will also investigate an unsafe release in the pitlane that saw Karl Reindler (#18 Preston Erection) and Macauley Jones (#8 Brad Jones Racing ) collide while trying to rejoin the fast lane.

“We were out there scrubbing some tyres, came in for a new set of tyres, left our pit box and he just basically got released into me, into the side for a bit of a traffic jam in pit lane,” said Reindler.

“I suppose it could happen to anyone, it is not the type of thing you want to happen in the race so it is something I guess we will keep an eye out on.

“There was nothing I could do, I couldn’t roll out of it any sooner which you would do, if you could. I am not sure if it was Nick or Macca in the car, but ah yeah a bit of awkwardness in pit lane.”

The Sandown 500 is scheduled to start 1315.

Results: Virgin Australia Supercars Championship Wilson Security Sandown 500 Warm-Up

1	Nissan Motorsport	M.Caruso/D.Fiore	Nissan Altima	1:08.860
2	Red Bull Holden Racing Aust	S.Van Gisbergen/M.Campbell	Holden Commodore VF	1:08.942	00.082
3	Red Bull Holden Racing Aust	J.Whincup/P.Dumbrell	Holden Commodore VF	1:08.951	00.091
4	carsales Racing	T.Kelly/J.Le Brocq	Nissan Altima	1:08.974	00.115
5	Mobil 1 HSV Racing	J.Courtney/J.Perkins	Holden Commodore VF	1:08.987	00.127
6	The Bottle-O Racing Team	M.Winterbottom/D.Canto	Ford Falcon FG/X	1:09.061	00.201
7	Monster Energy Racing	C.Waters/R.Stanaway	Ford Falcon FG/X	1:09.119	00.259
8	Wilson Security Racing GRM	G.Tander/J.Golding	Holden Commodore VF	1:09.164	00.304
9	Shell V-Power Racing Team	S.McLaughlin/A.Premat	Ford Falcon FG/X	1:09.180	00.320
10	Shell V-Power Racing Team	F.Coulthard/T.D’Alberto	Ford Falcon FG/X	1:09.231	00.371
11	TEKNO Woodstock Racing	W.Davison/J.Webb	Holden Commodore VF	1:09.268	00.408
12	Preston Hire Racing	L.Holdsworth/K.Reindler	Holden Commodore VF	1:09.292	00.432
13	Mobil 1 HSV Racing	S.Pye/W.Luff	Holden Commodore VF	1:09.317	00.458
14	Wilson Security Racing GRM	J.Moffat/R.Muscat	Holden Commodore VF	1:09.333	00.473
15	Freightliner Racing	T.Slade/A.Walsh	Holden Commodore VF	1:09.357	00.498
16	Supercheap Auto Racing	C.Mostert/S.Owen	Ford Falcon FG/X	1:09.385	00.526
17	Erebus Penrite Racing	D.Reynolds/L.Youlden	Holden Commodore VF	1:09.414	00.554
18	Erebus GB Galvanizing Racing	D.Wood/C.Pither	Holden Commodore VF	1:09.510	00.651
19	Mongrel Boots Racing	N.Percat/M.Jones	Holden Commodore VF	1:09.549	00.689
20	Sengled Racing	R.Kelly/D.Wall	Nissan Altima	1:09.580	00.721
21	Plus Fitness Racing	A.Russell/T.Douglas	Holden Commodore VF	1:09.649	00.789
22	TeamVortex	C.Lowndes/S.Richards	Holden Commodore VF	1:09.757	00.898
23	MEGA Racing	J.Bright/G.Jacobson	Ford Falcon FG/X	1:09.793	00.934
24	Repair Management Aust Racing	A.Rullo/A.Davison	Holden Commodore VF	1:09.995	01.135
25	Team Harvey Norman	S.De Silvestro/D.Russell	Nissan Altima	1:10.404	01.544