Supercars: Rookie Randle tops opening practice at Adelaide 500

Supercars rookie Thomas Randle has topped opening practice at the VALO Adelaide 500, in a session ended by a crash for Macauley Jones.

Red flags flew with one minute from the scheduled end of Practice 1 after Jones crashed at Turn 8.

Replays showed Jones hitting the wall at the fast sweeper, before pulling up at Turn 9.

Randle was one of a number of drivers to set his quickest lap in the final runs before Jones crashed.

Brodie Kostecki was second for Erebus Motorsport, with Cam Waters sneaking into third.

Champion-elect Shane van Gisbergen was fourth, having missed a final run.

It was the first Supercars session in Adelaide in 1015 days — since February 2020 — and the first since major resurfacing works.

David Reynolds clocked a 1:20.686s in the first session in 2020 — Randle’s time on Thursday was a 1:19.803s.

Kostecki and Waters were within 0.07s of Randle’s session-topping time.

“The red flag came out at a good time, when I did my lap,” Randle said.

“I don’t know how many other people did a lap, I think Cam got a lap in.

“Just a credit to the whole team at Tickford Racing.

“The hardest thing for me was braking at the [Turn 9] hairpin.

“You start braking on the old surface, then halfway through it changes to the new surface.

“There’s a bump there, there’s quite a lot of grip.

“It’s not qualifying yet, it’s only practice, won’t put all my eggs in one basket yet.”

Practice 1 Results