Champion in waiting Jamie Whincup has finished the opening day of the Sydney Telstra 500 quickest overall in today’s practice sessions while teammate Craig Lowndes endured the heavy heat to wrap up the day sixth.
Hitting the 3.42km track for first time in the third 30-minute practice session, Whincup set about familiarising himself with the Sydney street circuit and completed the second-quickest lap of 1:29.4798.
Focusing more on set-up of the #888 Commodore, Lowndes managed to clock the 19th-fastest lap time of 1:30.2842.
Whincup went against the grain in the final 30-minute session and switched to green hard compound tyres in the last ten minutes, giving him ample opportunity to post the fastest lap time of the day.
Opting to stay on used hard tyres, Lowndes still worked against the high temperature and clocked the sixth fastest time of 1:28.6848 on his eighth completed lap of the final session.
Saturday will see an early morning Qualifying session at 9.25am (AEDST) followed by the Top Ten Shootout at 12.00pm (AEDST). Race 29 of the V8 Supercar Series will commence at 3.05pm (AEDST).
