Red Bull Racing Australia hit the ‘Paperclip’ on Friday for the opening practice sessions ahead of this weekend’s Ipswich SuperSprint.
Sunshine blanketed Queensland Raceway as Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes were given plenty of track time to fine tune their setups with two sessions each consisting of an hours running.
Craig used the early allotment to run 29 laps and his first outing saw him register a time of 1:10:8947 on the hard compound tyre to leave him P16. Following the break Lowndesy jumped up into P10, running 35 laps with a best time of 1:10:2909 as both hard and soft tyres were used on the No. 888.
JDub posted 28 laps in Practice One and finished with a best time of 1:10:7822 to leave him P13 in his Holden VF Commodore early. After lunch he saw a small improvement moving into P11 with a time of 1:10:3686 as the team worked on setup options over 30 laps.
Our additional drivers, Paul Dumbrell and Steven Richards, also got the chance to get a feel of the cars ahead of the upcoming enduro rounds with a special practice session assigned in the morning.
Scott Mclaughlin led the field in Practice One with his quickest being a 1:10:0563, while in Practice Two it was Chaz Mostert who topped the time sheets with a 1:09:4881.
JAMIE WHINCUP – Car No. 1
Practice One: 13th (Fastest lap – 1:10.7822)
Practice Two: 11th (Fastest lap – 1:10.3686)
“We had a lot to do today. We had a full program and we got through it all which was nice. We spent 95 percent of the time on hard tyres and that’s where we are most struggling with the car. We put the soft tyres on and we seem to be somewhere there about, but we’re struggling on the hards and that’s the big area of focus overnight to improve on that. Hopefully we can get a good direction and move forward tomorrow.”
CRAIG LOWNDES – Car No. 888
Practice One: 16th (Fastest lap – 1:10.8947)
Practice Two: 10th (Fastest lap – 1:10.2909)
“We were making some adjustments over the course of the two practice sessions today. We’ve been up and down a little bit, but I think we’ve got a good direction now for tomorrow. We still need to find a better balance and a bit better drive off the corner. Our entry and braking is quite good, if anything at the moment I’d like some more drive from turns three and six and if I can keep the rest from turns one and two I’ll be happy.”
Action continues tomorrow with the final practice session starting at 10:00am local time followed by qualifying and two 60km sprint races.
Check out the TV schedule here.
