Having gone through the first half-hour session untroubled at the top, De Pasquale found himself under slightly more pressure in second practice.

His first run was ruined when he ran wide at Turn 1 – as did plenty of others thanks to a gusty tail wind down the front straight – De Pasquale not getting a representative time down until eight minutes in.

His 1m30.366s was good enough to go fastest but the time didn't last long. A few minutes later both Triple Eight cars improved, Jamie Whincup with a 1m30.319s before he was edged by Shane van Gisbergen's 1m29.850s.

Van Gisbergen did look to improve with a final run, but after going green in the first sector the Kiwi ran wide and triggered the track limit sensor.

That opened the door for De Pasquale to keep his session-topping steak alive, a 1m29.684s on his final lap edging him clear of van Gisbergen.

Despite missing out on top spot, van Gisbergen was encouraged to be less than two-tenths away from the in-form pacesetter.

"It's not qualifying yet, we don't know if they are fully up it," he said. "It feels promising, but you just don't know.

"There was a wind change then, that's why we were all going off at Turn 1. It was quite difficult.

"The car feels good, but we'll see what happens in qualifying. It's going to be really interesting."

A number of drivers sampled the hard compound tyre during that session, perhaps with a view of running it in the first part of qualifying later today.

Brodie Kostecki was among those to try the hard, although the time that left him third fastest came on the soft tyre.

Nick Percat was fourth fastest ahead of Will Brown, Will Davison and Whincup.

Scott Pye was eighth, impressive given Team 18 missed the first part of the session while working through set-up changes.

Jack Le Brocq and Tim Slade rounded out the Top 10.

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval
1	11	Anton De Pasquale	Ford Mustang GT	12	1'29.684
2	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	9	1'29.850	0.165	0.165
3	99	Brodie Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	11	1'30.002	0.317	0.151
4	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	10	1'30.078	0.393	0.076
5	9	Will Brown	Holden Commodore ZB	10	1'30.145	0.460	0.066
6	17	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	12	1'30.174	0.489	0.029
7	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	10	1'30.245	0.560	0.071
8	20	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	8	1'30.252	0.568	0.007
9	5	Jack Le Brocq	Ford Mustang GT	10	1'30.284	0.599	0.031
10	3	Tim Slade	Ford Mustang GT	10	1'30.328	0.644	0.044
11	2	Bryce Fullwood	Holden Commodore ZB	11	1'30.389	0.704	0.060
12	14	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	10	1'30.417	0.732	0.027
13	25	Chaz Mostert	Holden Commodore ZB	11	1'30.520	0.835	0.103
14	7	Andre Heimgartner	Ford Mustang GT	10	1'30.590	0.906	0.070
15	19	Fabian Coulthard	Holden Commodore ZB	11	1'30.725	1.040	0.134
16	35	Zane Goddard	Holden Commodore ZB	10	1'30.760	1.076	0.035
17	18	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	7	1'30.783	1.099	0.023
18	4	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	12	1'30.821	1.136	0.037
19	96	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	10	1'30.839	1.155	0.018
20	22	Garry Jacobson	Holden Commodore ZB	10	1'30.996	1.311	0.156
21	34	Jake Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	8	1'31.045	1.361	0.049
22	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	10	1'31.057	1.372	0.011
23	44	James Courtney	Ford Mustang GT	9	1'31.267	1.582	0.210
24	27	Kurt Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	12	1'31.281	1.596	0.014
25	26	Luke Youlden	Ford Mustang GT	11	1'31.317	1.633	0.036
26	55	Thomas Randle	Ford Mustang GT	9	1'31.563	1.878	0.245
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