PERTH SUPERSPRINT SHELL V-POWER FRIDAY WRAP

PRESS RELEASE/Shell V-Power Photo: Darin Mandy

Fabian Coulthard – No. 12 Shell V-Power Racing Ford

Practice 1 – 23rd  (Fastest Lap: 56.6011s)
Practice 2 – 3rd (Fastest Lap: 55.0341s)
 
Scott McLaughlin – No. 17 Shell V-Power Racing Ford

Practice 1 – 4th (Fastest Lap: 55.8256s)
Practice 2 – 1st (Fastest Lap: 54.8871s)

RECAP:  Both practice sessions went by with few issues for the Shell V-Power Racing squad. Practice 1 was spent looking to tune the cars for race pace and balance, before switching the focus to qualifying in Practice 2. With the three-part qualifying sessions featuring in Perth this year, finishing inside the Top 10 during practice is important. It allows the drivers to skip the opening 10-minute qualifying session, and gives the engineers an additional set of tyres to play with for strategy. Scott McLaughlin ended the day at the top of the timesheets thanks to a blistering lap that saw him drop into the 54-second bracket, with Fabian Coulthard flying in third only one-tenth behind. They will both appear in Q2 tomorrow, with the goal to then earn a place in Q3 and a front-row grid position.

COULTHARD QUOTE: “It’s very valuable to be able to finish practice in the top 10 and skip the first qualifying session tomorrow, it’s good to get that free pass. We’ve been working hard as a team away from the track, we’ve got good competitive cars and I’m looking forward to qualifying tomorrow.”

MCLAUGHLIN QUOTE: “It’s a nice feeling to come to a track that I enjoy, and that we go well at as a squad, and it’s exciting to have both cars in the top three. We’re feeling good as a team, we stuck to our plan all day and I finally put it all together on the last lap, so it’s a nice start to the weekend.”