Van Gisbergen quickest at the end of first day at The Bend

Shane van Gisbergen leads a pack of cars

Shane van Gisbergen set a solid benchmark for rival Kiwi Scott McLaughlin as the Supercars Championship battle continued on neutral ground in South Australia.

Van Gisbergen, who won the historic night race in Sydney a fortnight ago, looked more rally than Supercar driver at the spectacular Tailem Bend facility as the field tried to come to grips with the unknown layout.

With practice times normally confined to around a second or so between the entire field, Red Bull Holden Racing team’s Van Gisbergen blew away all comers by finishing a mammoth half a second in front of team-mate Jamie Whincup and almost a full second ahead of Tim Slade in the Freightliner Commodore.

Chaz Mostert finished fourth in the Supercheap Auto Racing Falcon.

“There is still a fair bit left, there is no way we are half a second faster," Van Gisbergen said.

“There’s probably people making mistakes, half a second left in the driver and half a second in the car. “We will see the evolution of that over the weekend but it’s definitely a good start. There’s a rush, it’s exciting … fun. “It’s unpredictable what you are going to get."

McLaughlin and his team-mate Fabian Coulthard struggled. McLaughlin was more than two seconds behind in second practice in 12th while Coulthard was a distant 25th.

The Brad Jones Racing prepared cars of Slade and Nick Percat, both South Australian locals, had a strong day out while Nissan Motorsport’s Simona de Silvestro had one of her best practice days finishing well inside the top ten in seventh in the Harvey Norman Altima.

Shane van Gisbergen

“For whatever reason the BJR cars for as long as I remember are quite speedy on the high grip new surfaces. I was secretly hoping that was going to be the case," said Slade.

“It was good having a car we didn’t have to chase too much. Like everyone else we are learning our way around and getting the car setup.

De Silvestro’s team-mate Ricky Kelly was one place higher in sixth.

“I like the place, it’s a lot of fun," De Silvestro said. “It’s really hard to put a lap together. The race is going to be quite interesting as it is so easy to make a mistake. But it’s fun, a really fun place to drive.

“This is a really European track with a lot of flow. For someone with an open wheel background I think it really helps. You are used to carrying the speeds."

A number of drivers had near misses as they pushed their cars to their limits on the new circuit including McLaughlin, Lowndes and Mostert.

There will be on final practice session tomorrow morning at 10:35am local time before Qualifying at 1:20pm and the first OTR SuperSprint 120km race begins at 4:20pm.