FAST START FOR SHELL MUSTANGS IN QUEENSLAND

PRESS RELEASE/Shell V-Power Racing – Photo: Velocity Magazine (Darin Mandy)

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

Practice 1 – 6th (Fastest Lap: 1m09.5902s)
Practice 2 – 7th (Fastest Lap: 1m09.2174s)
 
Scott McLaughlin – No. 17 Shell V-Power Racing Ford

Practice 1 – 1st (Fastest Lap: 1m09.1982s)
Practice 2 – 1st (Fastest Lap: 1m08.8277s)

RECAP:  The opening day of the Ipswich SuperSprint started in overcast conditions, although temperatures were still relatively high around the 3.1km of our home track.
 
Having tested here a little over seven days ago, both drivers were confident of a good showing, however immediately reported that the track conditions were not comparable to last week’s test. This meant that initial set-ups had to be adjusted to suit existing conditions.
 
Scott McLaughlin and his Car 17 crew tuned the base set-up they worked on at the test last week, making small adjustments to bring it into line with the conditions. The result saw McLaughlin top the time sheets in both Practice 1 and 2.
 
The Car 12 crew worked with Fabian Coulthard to adjust front-end balance issues, continuing to work across both sessions to make Coulthard comfortable in the car. He finished sixth in the opening session, before taking seventh in Practice 2 to lock in a direct berth into the Q2 qualifying session tomorrow.
 
Tomorrow will see the Supercars field roll out for a 30-minute practice session in the morning, ahead of three-part qualifying before a 120km race tomorrow afternoon.
 
COULTHARD QUOTE: “Today turned out to be a little more challenging that we probably thought it would be. The track has changed a fair bit since we were here testing last week, so we had to work pretty hard on the set-up today. Good to make the Top 10 in Practice 2, so we go straight to Q2 tomorrow and we have another practice session in the morning so we’ll debrief, have a good think about it and be good to go tomorrow.”

MCLAUGHLIN QUOTE: “The track’s changed a bit since we were here last week, and while we rolled out with the base set-up we tuned at the test day, we’ve changed it up a fair bit across the day to get to a point where we were happy. Great to be at the top of the sheets, and we know there’s more speed in it so it’s good signs for the weekend. Looking forward to having a go in qualifying and the race tomorrow.”

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