Albert Park Supercars: Mostert tops opening practice by 0.4s

Jamie Whincup, Fabian Coulthard and Scott McLaughlin all traded fastest times in the opening few minutes of the session, before reigning champion McLaughlin put some air between himself and the rest of the pack with a 1m56.654s six minutes in.

The quick times book-ended the half-hour session, the next change at the top coming with two minutes to go thanks to Whincup's 1m56.082s.

But the hammer blow came from Mostert with a minute to go, the Tickford Mustang driver going 0.4s clear thanks to a 1m55.574s.

"The session was pretty tough for us, we had a lot of comms issues so couldn't really hear what [engineer] Adam [De Borre] was saying and couldn't relay what I needed back from the car," said Mostert.

"Putting a green tyre on at the end, it really showed some pace from the car. But there's still a bit of tuning up to do. Qualifying car was pretty good, which is nice in Practice 1, but no doubt there will be a lot of quick guys coming for us in the next one."

Anton De Pasquale ended up second, setting his 1m56.004s at almost the same time that Mostert went fastest.

Whincup dropped back to third, followed by Mark Winterbottom and Lee Holdsworth.

Walkinshaw pair James Courtney and Scott Pye were sixth and seventh, as McLaughlin slipped back to eighth.

Cam Waters was ninth, with Simona de Silvestro leading the way for Nissan in 10th.

David Reynolds was just 16th after opting to not run green tyres, while Shane van Gisbergen was just 22nd quickest thanks to a vibrating front splitter.

"It was a bit of a shame, we had a bad splitter vibration,” he said.

“We pitted, tried about four times to fix it, there’s no point trying to push on and do more damage to the rest of the car.

“We’ll spend some time now to get it fixed, but it was a shame to lose the session.

“We’ll see what we can learn from [Whincup's crew] and start the next one with their set-up I guess. It’s a shame, but it is what it is.”

#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Mustang GT	1'55.5742
99	Anton De Pasquale	Holden Commodore ZB	1'56.0041	0.4299
88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	1'56.0824	0.5082
18	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	1'56.2048	0.6306
5	Lee Holdsworth	Ford Mustang GT	1'56.2094	0.6352
22	James Courtney	Holden Commodore ZB	1'56.4836	0.9094
2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	1'56.5851	1.0109
17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Mustang GT	1'56.6542	1.0800
6	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	1'56.6584	1.0842
78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima L33	1'56.6979	1.1237
33	Richie Stanaway	Holden Commodore ZB	1'56.7970	1.2228
23	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	1'57.0883	1.5141
8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	1'57.1286	1.5544
12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Mustang GT	1'57.1491	1.5749
7	Andre Heimgartner	Nissan Altima L33	1'57.2580	1.6838
9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore ZB	1'57.2938	1.7196
15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima L33	1'57.3008	1.7266
3	Garry Jacobson	Nissan Altima L33	1'57.3819	1.8077
14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore ZB	1'57.5438	1.9696
35	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	1'57.5550	1.9808
34	James Golding	Holden Commodore ZB	1'57.5571	1.9829
97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	1'58.2981	2.7239
21	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	1'58.6975	3.1233
19	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	1'59.7617	4.1875