McLaughlin into 1:47s as van Gisbergen battles in Practice 3

Scott McLaughlin has further lowered the practice record at The Bend as Shane van Gisbergen endured a torrid time in the third full-field session of the weekend.

McLaughlin, who also smashed the practice record the afternoon earlier, was more than three quarters of a second faster than the rest with a 1:47.9865s on used tyres in Practice 3, while Chaz Mostert and then Anton De Pasquale were next-best.

Van Gisbergen, on the other hand, ended up 20th having gone off four times in the #97 Red Bull HRT ZB Commodore during the half-hour session.

The hit-out was barely underway when a red flag was called in the seventh minute due to debris brought onto the track by a Macauley Jones (#21 CoolDrive ZB Commodore) off at Turn 18.

By then, van Gisbergen had already run off twice, first at Turn 13 followed by a wild moment when he hit the kerb and picked up two wheels through the succession of right-handers.

McLaughlin clocked a 1:48.9311s on his first flyer after the red flag in the #17 Shell V-Power Mustang, taking top spot from Cameron Waters (#6 Monster Energy Mustang).

On his next run, the championship leader set a 1:48.4030s on P3 tyres, putting him almost nine tenths of a second ahead of his rivals at that point in time.

DJR Team Penske reportedly bolted another used set of tyres onto Car #17 for the final run, when McLaughlin became the first driver to lap The Bend Motorsport Park in a Supercar in the 1:47s bracket.

As expected, most of the fast laps came right at the end of the session, which ran in cloudy conditions throughout.

Mostert moved to a 1:48.7594s late on in the #55 Supercheap Auto Mustang, while De Pasquale (#99 Penrite ZB Commodore) was less than three hundredths slower again.

Waters and Lee Holdsworth (#5 The Bottle-O Mustang) made it three Tickford Racing entries in the top five, the former as the last driver within a second of McLaughlin’s fastest lap.

Rounding out the top 10 were Scott Pye (#2 Mobil 1 Mega ZB Commodore), Will Davison (#23 Milwaukee Mustang), Mark Winterbottom (#18 Irwin Tools ZB Commodore), James Courtney (#22 Walkinshaw Andretti United ZB Commodore), and Tim Slade (#14 Freightliner ZB Commodore).

Fabian Coulthard (#12 Mustang) was 15th at 1.4106s slower than his team-mate in the second of the DJRTP entries, one position ahead of Erebus Motorsport’s David Reynolds (#9 ZB Commodore).

Wildcards Thomas Randle (#66 Scandia Mustang) and Jack Smith (#4 SCT Logistics ZB Commodore) were 17th and 18th respectively.

Van Gisbergen had two more offs after the red flag, including a moment at Turn 5 when his car snapped sideways and the steering wheel whip appeared to hurt his left wrist.

The 2016 champion even quipped, “Yay! I did a lap,” when he finally logged a somewhat representative lap time as he took the chequered flag, despite still being 1.6753s slower than McLaughlin.

Team-mate Jamie Whincup (#88 ZB Commodore) was even further back, in 24th.

Armor All Qualifying for Race 21 of the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship starts at 1235 local time/1305 AEST.

Results: Practice 3

Pos	Num	Team/Sponsor	Driver	Car	Fastest lap	Split
1	17	Shell V-Power Racing Team	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Mustang GT	1:47.9865
2	55	Supercheap Auto Racing	Chaz Mostert	Ford Mustang GT	1:48.7594	0:00.7729
3	99	Penrite Racing	Anton De Pasquale	Holden Commodore ZB	1:48.7844	0:00.7979
4	6	Monster Energy Racing Team	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	1:48.9334	0:00.9469
5	5	The Bottle-O Racing Team	Lee Holdsworth	Ford Mustang GT	1:48.9921	0:01.0056
6	2	Mobil 1 MEGA Racing	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	1:48.9934	0:01.0069
7	23	Milwaukee Racing	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	1:49.1473	0:01.1608
8	18	Irwin Racing	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	1:49.1759	0:01.1894
9	22	Mobil 1 MEGA Racing	James Courtney	Holden Commodore ZB	1:49.2054	0:01.2189
10	14	Freightliner Racing	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore ZB	1:49.2236	0:01.2371
11	21	Team CoolDrive	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	1:49.2534	0:01.2669
12	35	Unit Racing	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	1:49.2791	0:01.2926
13	3	RABBLE.club Racing	Garry Jacobson	Nissan Altima	1:49.3341	0:01.3476
14	7	Plus Fitness Racing	Andre Heimgartner	Nissan Altima	1:49.3681	0:01.3816
15	12	Shell V-Power Racing Team	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Mustang GT	1:49.3971	0:01.4106
16	9	Penrite Racing	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore ZB	1:49.4303	0:01.4438
17	66	Scandia Racing	Thomas Randle	Ford Mustang GT	1:49.5894	0:01.6029
18	4	SCT Logistics Racing	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	1:49.6248	0:01.6383
19	34	Boost Mobile Racing	James Golding	Holden Commodore ZB	1:49.6496	0:01.6631
20	97	Red Bull Holden Racing Team	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	1:49.6618	0:01.6753
21	15	Castrol Racing	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	1:49.6646	0:01.6781
22	78	Team Harvey Norman	Simona De Silvestro	Nissan Altima	1:49.7821	0:01.7956
23	19	Truck Assist TEKNO Racing	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	1:49.9971	0:02.0106
24	88	Red Bull Holden Racing Team	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	1:50.0142	0:02.0277
25	8	X Convenience Mobil Racing	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	1:50.1088	0:02.1223
26	33	Boost Mobile Racing	Richie Stanaway	Holden Commodore ZB	1:50.2410	0:02.2545