THE Shell V-Power Racing Team ended Friday on top at the Supercars Ipswich Super 440.
The day consisted of two back-to-back, half-hour practice sessions held midway through the afternoon at Queensland Raceway.
With most of the running focused on evaluating setup changes, the fastest times came at the end of the second session when the full field put new ‘green’ tyres on for qualifying simulation runs.
Amid a flurry of fast laps, Brodie Kostecki laid down a storming 1m08.7032s lap after the chequered flag waved.
With no other drivers getting within 0.2s of his time, Car 17 ended the day on top – and courtesy of its 17th lap of the session.
The huge margin came despite a small bobble at Turn 4.
“I was a little bit too deep and just had a front (brake) that was sort of trying to pinch, so I was just trying to manage that and ran a little bit wide,” he explained.
“Really happy with everyone at the Shell V-Power Racing Team. The car was feeling pretty good throughout the session, but it’s hard to tell until you put (new) tyres on.
“We didn’t change too much, which is great - so I had George (Commins, race engineer) stressed at one point!
“Strong start to the weekend, but the trophies are for tomorrow and Sunday, so we’ll go back through and see if we can make any changes and make the car a little easier to drive for tomorrow.
Rylan Gray had a solid opening day, finishing inside the top five positions in the opening session.
He sat as high as fourth in the closing minutes of the second session, but wound up 19th when the dust settled after the ‘green’ tyre runs.
The Shell V-Power Mustangs are next on track at 10am AEST on Saturday for back-to-back, two-part qualifying sessions that set the grid for Races 26 and 27.
