Dumbrell sizzles in Practice 1 at Sandown

Paul Dumbrell has shattered the practice record in the opening session for this weekend’s Rabble.Club Sandown 500.

In the first of two co-driver sessions for the day, Dumbrell broke the record which Jamie Whincup set in qualifying four years ago by 0.7263s in Whincup’s own #1 Red Bull HRT ZB Commodore.

Dean Fiore (#23 Drive Nissan Altima) finished the 30-minute session 0.4319s slower in second position, ahead of Jack Perkins (#25 Boost Mobile ZB Commodore), Alex Rullo (#78 Harvey Norman Nissan Altima), and Jonathon Webb (#19 Tekno Autosports ZB Commodore).

Shell V-Power Racing’s Alexandre Premat (#17 FGX Falcon) and Tony D’Alberto (#12 FGX Falcon) were the only two Fords in the top 10 in seventh and ninth respectively.

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Dumbrell, who also topped Super2 Practice 1 in record pace earlier in the morning, had already undercut Whincup’s mark on his first run before lowering his best time to 1:07.8467s just prior to the halfway mark.

“The track’s quite good,” said the 2012 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 winner.

“The surface looks like it’s deteriorated since it’s been resurfaced in Turn 1 and 4 and whatnot, but the lap times say something different.”

Regarding the work to fill in cracks in the track surface, Dumbrell predicted, “It will be good today, but it will be diabolical tomorrow. Bit of wet weather on that type of stuff never makes it nice.

“But I think as the track gets a bit warmer today it will come into its own and I think this afternoon it will be pretty impressive.”

Webb was the next under the old record in the final four minutes before Rullo, in Simona de Silvestro’s car, and then Fiore, in Michael Caruso’s, slotted into second position.

“We had the full test day in Car 78, got to do a lot of laps last week,” explained Rullo.

“(It was) Good to jump straight into the (Super2) car, feeling pretty good and obviously we’re on softs as well, which makes it pretty easy.

“I was able to jump straight into this car (de Silvestro’s) and be on pace.”

The two Altimas were split in the final minute by Perkins in the James Courtney entry, while Scott Pye’s #2 Walkinshaw Andretti United ZB Commodore was ultimately sixth-fastest in the hands of Warren Luff.

Premat was 0.7386s off Dumbrell’s pace in Scott McLaughlin’s Ford, while Garry Jacobson took Rick Kelly’s #15 Castrol Nissan Altima to eighth and Steven Richards rounded out the top 10 in Craig Lowndes’ #888 Autobarn ZB Commodore.

The first of the Tickford Racing cars was Chaz Mostert’s #55 Supercheap Auto FGX Falcon, driven by James Moffat to 13th position.

One spot further back was Earl Bamber in championship leader Shane van Gisbergen’s #97 Triple Eight ZB Commodore.

The top 16, rounded out by Will Brown in Anton De Pasquale’s #99 Erebus ZB Commodore, were within a second.

Dean Canto’s relatively harmless spin at Dandenong Road was the main incident during the session.

He ended up second-slowest in the Mark Winterbottom #5 Bottle-O FGX Falcon, ahead of Matt Stone Racing rookie Bryce Fullwood (#35 Bigmate VF Commodore).

Practice 2, a half-hour hit-out open to all drivers, is scheduled for 1230 local time/AEST.

Results: Supercars Practice 1 (Co Drivers)

1	1  Red Bull Holden Racing Team	Paul Dumbrell	Holden Commodore ZB	1:07.8467RSS
2	23  Drive Racing	Dean Fiore	Nissan Altima	1:08.2786rSS	00.4319
3	25  Mobil 1 Boost Mobile Racing	Jack Perkins	Holden Commodore ZB	1:08.4459rSS	00.5992
4	78  Team Harvey Norman	Alex Rullo	Nissan Altima	1:08.4950rSS	00.6483
5	19  Tekno Autosport	Jonathon Webb	Holden Commodore ZB	1:08.5013rSS	00.6546
6	2  Mobil 1 Boost Mobile Racing	Warren Luff	Holden Commodore ZB	1:08.5740 SS	00.7273
7	17  Shell V-Power Racing Team	Alexandre Premat	Ford Falcon FG/X	1:08.5853 SS	00.7386
8	15  Castrol Racing	Garry Jacobson	Nissan Altima	1:08.6120 SS	00.7653
9	12  Shell V-Power Racing Team	Tony D’Alberto	Ford Falcon FG/X	1:08.6396 SS	00.7929
10	888  Autobarn Lowndes Racing	Steven Richards	Holden Commodore ZB	1:08.6610 S	00.8143
11	8  SNAPES Racing	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	1:08.6677 SS	00.8210
12	21  Team CoolDrive	Dale Wood	Holden Commodore ZB	1:08.7068 SS	00.8601
13	55  Supercheap Auto Racing	James Moffat	Ford Falcon FG/X	1:08.7383 SS	00.8916
14	97  Red Bull Holden Racing Team	Earl Bamber	Holden Commodore ZB	1:08.7871 SS	00.9404
15	6  Monster Energy Racing	David Russell	Ford Falcon FG/X	1:08.8013 SS	00.9546
16	99  Erebus TMotorsport	William Brown	Holden Commodore ZB	1:08.8031 SS	00.9564
17	33  Wilson Security Racing GRM	Chris Pither	Holden Commodore ZB	1:08.8729 SS	01.0262
18	14  Freightliner Racing	Ashley Walsh	Holden Commodore ZB	1:08.8987 SS	01.0520
19	7  Plus Fitness Racing	Aaren Russell	Nissan Altima	1:08.9572 SS	01.1105
20	34  Wilson Security Racing GRM	Richard Muscat	Holden Commodore ZB	1:08.9623 SS	01.1156
21	9  Erebus Penrite Racing	Luke Youlden	Holden Commodore ZB	1:08.9792 SS	01.1325
22	230  Milwaukee Racing	Alex Davison	Ford Falcon FG/X	1:08.9894 SS	01.1427
23	56  RABBLE.club Racing	Steve Owen	Ford Falcon FG/X	1:09.0236 SS	01.1769
24	18  Preston Hire Racing	Jason Bright	Holden Commodore ZB	1:09.0339 SS	01.1872
25	5  The Bottle-O Racing Team	Dean Canto	Ford Falcon FG/X	1:09.0678 SS	01.2211
26	35  Bigmate Racing	Bryce Fullwood	Holden Commodore VF2	1:09.6454 SS	01.7987