Whincup dominates Bathurst Practice

Six-time Supercars champion Jamie Whincup has continued his dominant pace in the fifth practice session of the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, finishing nearly two-tenths of a second clear of this Ford rival Mark Winterbottom.

In what was the final practice before this afternoon’s qualifying session, 12 drivers dropped into the 2:05s bracket, with Whincup’s quickest lap just shy of his 2015 lap record.

Whincup owns the practice/qualifying record at 2:04.9097sec. That time was set in this session 12 months ago.

Winterbottom’s Prodrive Racing Australia team-mate Chaz Mostert was third fastest ahead of Wilson Security GRM’s Scott McLaughlin, Whincup’s team-mate Shane van Gisbergen and BJR’s Tim Slade in the Freightliner Commodore.

Rounding out the top 10 were Jason Bright, Fabian Coulthard, David Reynolds and Cameron Waters, whose co-driver Jack Le Brocq had topped the co-driver hit-out earlier in the day, the only session this week #88 hasn’t set the fastest time.

The top 14 cars were separated by less than one second.