FABULOUS.
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Fabian Coulthard proved last year’s sizzling lap record was no fluke on Thursday when he produced a new benchmark with his penultimate trip around Mount Panorama in the third session.
Ford looked destined to sit on top of the standings after the day’s proceedings with only a couple of minutes left in afternoon practice with Mark Winterbottom having led most of the way, eclipsing the existing record.
On his 15th lap in the Freightliner Racing VF Commodore, though, Coulthard scorched around the circuit to steal top spot and raise hopes that this could be his year.
He finished with a two minute, 5.4786 second effort, bettering his former mark of 2:05.6080 from last October.
Winterbottom wasn’t far behind, conceding a gap of 0.0998 seconds.
Rod Nash Racing star David Reynolds was third, 0.2529 adrift of Coulthard.
There was no hiding the joy for the New Zealander and co-driver Luke Youlden.
“The track is ultra-fast today; you only need to look at the first session. Mark [Winterbottom] or Chaz [Mostert] did a 2:06 this morning, so I was sweating a little bit,” Coulthard said.
“I thought ‘my record’s going to go’.
“Up until that point I think the best time I’d done was a 2:07.7; whatever was in my reference lap I was 3.5 seconds up on that, so I didn’t really know how good a lap it was. I didn’t try and do the maths as I was going around.
“I just drove to the grip I had and that’s the time that popped up. To go a couple of 10ths quicker than I did last year is pretty special.
“I think the way the weekend is panning out, it wouldn’t surprise me if it gets broken again.”
It was Mostert who set the pace in the first session, streeting the field with a 2:06.3223, more than a second clear of Reynolds as Ford dominated. Holden driver Shane Van Gisbergen in third was the only Commodore driver in the top six.
Championship leader Winterbottom could only manage 14th.
The Nissans were eye-catching early, James Moffat (fourth) and Todd Kelly (sixth) both starting strongly, as did Volvo driver Scott McLaughlin (fifth).
Reynolds’ co-driver Dean Canto proved that their car was close to the pace by running second in the middle session behind Holden Racing Team’s Warren Luff, the team-mate of Garth Tander.
It set up an interesting final stint as the teams tried to find the right set-up and at some stage most of the favourites fired some shots.
Winterbottom dominated for long periods, while Tander, Mostert, Van Gisbergen, Jason Bright, James Moffat and Craig Lowndes all began to improve late.
“We got better as the day went on. Steve [Owen, co-driver] did a great job in his session because I handed him a bad car from the first session and it wasn’t pretty,” Winterbottom said.
“He tidied it up and the team did a great job to make it that competitive.
“When you have a good car you feel like it all happens a bit easier.”
Of the other notables, defending series champion Jamie Whincup will need to lift on Friday after finishing 12th in the morning and 15th in the afternoon.
The all-female team of Simona de Silvestro and Renee Gracie were at the bottom of the time sheets in the first two sessions but improved to 25th by day’s end.