The heat is on at the Sydney 500 as Red Bull Racing Australia worked solidly through Friday’s three practice sessions to find wings for the No.1 and No.888 Commodores.
Jamie topped the first 20 minute session of the day and finished second in the next. The timesheets for final practice didn’t quite reflect how strong the car was though, as the rest of the field put on green tyres, while the car one crew chose not to and finished 11th.
“We’ve had quite a good day which is promising,” he said. “Friday is always important to set up your weekend. The car has been really nice to drive, it’s now just a matter of maximising the setup.
“The rest of the drivers put on a new set of tyres at the end of the third practice session and we elected not to and we’ll save them for the extra practice we have tomorrow.
We’re in a good place, we kept it relatively clean and we’ll see how we go tomorrow for qualifying.”
It was a tougher day on the other side of the garage as Craig struggled for car speed and then hit the wall in second practice with three minutes to go. He ultimately finished each session in 15th, 10th and 14th.
“We worked really hard to get the car right today and it’s not quite there at the moment but we’re getting there,” Lowndesy said.
“We’re very focused on getting second in the championship and I think at the moment we just need to find a little bit more speed in the second half of the lap. This is one of the toughest tracks we race at, it’s really hard to get it right. To get a good, clean lap around here is really satisfying as a driver because there are so many variables.”
Track action kicks off tomorrow from 9.00am AEDT with a practice sessions, two qualifying sessions and two 125km races. Check out the TV schedules here.
