After prolonged wet weather on the Gold Coast, teams were relieved to see a clear day dawn for the opening sessions of the Gold Coast 600.
Practice 1 was spent by the Shell V-Power Racing Team tuning for balance, in their first outing on the Surfers street circuit for 2018.
All four drivers took part in the session, as they found their feet on the challenging track. The 30-minute Practice 2 was for co-drivers only, with Tony D’Alberto onboard Car No.12 and Alex Premat in Car No.17. Both cars spent time working on both qualifying balance and race pace, with D’Alberto losing a few lap times due to kerb strikes.
The final practice session of the weekend was stopped after seven minutes when Will Davison crashed heavily at Turn 1, causing a red flag. The car was recovered, and the session restarted with no loss of time.
McLaughlin traded fastest laps with Van Gisbergen across the remainder of the session, eventually finishing 2nd in the session.
Coulthard finished third, showing some good signs for the team. McLaughlin also took to the street circuit for a demonstration in a Team Penske Ford Fusion NASCAR, previously raced by Joey Logano. Qualifying is at 10:05am local time tomorrow.
“Driving the NASCAR today was very cool, and it was a special opportunity,” commented McLaughlin. Thanks to Roger and Ryan for making that happen. It’s incredible. So much power! Getting back into the Supercar felt like second nature, and I was happy with my first flyer there. We’ve got a lot more confidence in the car, and it’s a great start. The cars have rolled out really well.”
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