Brown tops messy final practice, Davison crashes

Will Brown has topped final practice at the Penrite Oil Sandown 500, but that doesn’t tell half the story of what was a dramatic session.

Brown led Penrite Racing duo Richie Stanaway and Matt Payne after 39 frantic minutes, with the final minute lost due to a crash for Will Davison.

Changeable conditions made for an action-packed session, with Davison the major casualty due to a crash into the Turn 2 tyre barriers.

Despite morning rain, sun began to break through the clouds with 15 minutes remaining, encouraging teams to attempt the tyre crossover and change to slick tyres.

However, it proved a bridge too far, with drivers battling to pull their cars up at Turn 2 alone, some even finding the grass.

Despite setting the fastest lap, Brown wasn’t immune from mistakes either, first sliding at Turn 9 before bouncing through the Turn 3 mud.

"It was great to end up P1 there, I think it's when you run the tyres and how dry the track is and all of that," said Brown, who entered the weekend 81 points ahead of Chaz Mostert.

"We seem pretty competent in the dry and in the wet there, but you just never know, we don't know what qualifying is going to be this afternoon, so we're really just trying to make it through to that top 10.

"You'd think the top 10 would be dry, but it's Melbourne you just don't know."

On not running wet tyres, Brown added: "We didn't go out on the wet, I saw Davo down there had a bit of a pioneer. I thought it was too wet, Dandenong Road was really wet, and I thought it would be so hard to brake down there, and just limiting risk to the car really because I didn't think we would get a lot out of running a green then."

After sitting out much of the session, Erebus Motorsport finally sent Brodie Kostecki onto the track on slick tyres in the final three minutes, only for the reigning champion to slide off at Turn 2 as well.

However, Davison met a worse fate, losing control into Turn 2 and sliding through the wet grass into the tyre barriers, bringing an early end to proceedings.

All the while, Matt Stone Racing suffered another reliability concern, with Nick Percat kept in the lane for the final minutes with a suspected starter motor issue.

Broc Feeney, Chaz Mostert, James Golding, Anton De Pasquale, Tim Slade, Davison and Jack Le Brocq rounded out the top 10, ahead of Ryan Wood, Cam Waters and Mark Winterbottom.

Waters and Mostert traded fast times early on, with errors beginning early. Tim Slade and Garth Tander both went off at Turn 2, with Tander also sliding wide at Turn 4.

Mostert held early sway with a 1:14.4980s, before Waters lowered the marker to a 1:14.1088s. Wood was first into the 1:13s barrier with a 1:13.9975s, before Heimgartner (1:13.8995s) and Mostert (1:13.5892s) improved.

Waters pressed on with a 1:13.5473s; all the while, Feeney and Percat both sailed through the Turn 10 grass, a spot that would catch out several more drivers as the session wore on.

After 11 minutes, Brown and Feeney were 23rd and 24th as Practice 4 fast man Stanaway shot to the top with a 1:13.4946s. Countryman Wood also surfed through the Turn 1 grass, and went the long way to rejoin.

Triple Eight began to show pace as Brown first jumped to eighth, before Feeney fired his first genuine shot with a 1:13.3634s. He went quicker again with a 1:13.2723s, ahead of Mostert’s 1:13.3914s.

Stanaway (1:13.2415s) and Brown (1:13.0865s) then moved ahead, with Payne jumping to third before Davison’s crash ended the session early.

Supercars will return to the track on Saturday for Boost Mobile Qualifying at 2:15pm AEST, which will set the running order for the Top Ten Shootout at 5:25pm.