Red Bull sets pace at Sandown

DEFENDING champion Jamie Whincup and his co-driver Paul Dumbrell made a statement to their Supercars rivals after dominating practice at the Sandown 500 yesterday.

The seven-time champion and his long-time co-driver fired the first warning shots of the endurance season after producing the two fastest times of the day in practice.

In a clear statement the No.1 Red Bull Holden Racing Team Commodore would be the car to chase at Sandown, Dumbrell set the track alight in first practice with a lap record of 1:07.8467 in the co-drivers-only session. He lowered the previous practice record set by Whincup in 2014.

Whincup then backed it up with the fastest time (1:07.9688) in second practice, the only session for the main Supercars drivers yesterday.

The Holden ace led a Red Bull one-two, with teammate and championship leader Shane van Gisbergen clocking the next best time ahead of Walkinshaw Andretti United’s James Courtney. The first five cars were Holdens, with Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters the best of the Ford drivers in sixth. Championship contender Scott McLaughlin was 11th fastest.

Whincup said it was a strong start for himself and Dumbrell, but they still wanted to find more improvement for the weekend’s racing.

“We’ve generally had a quick car here, we’ve just made rookie errors,’’ Whincup said. “So we’re not getting carried away with car pace, we’ll just keep our head down and try to minimise errors.”

Whincup sits third in the Supercars championship standings, 362 points behind van Gisbergen and 343 behind second-placed DJR Team Penske rival McLaughlin.

There are 900 points up for grabs between the three endurance races at Sandown, Bathurst and the Gold Coast, but Whincup said he was not looking any further ahead than tomorrow’s race.

“We’re here to just do the best job we can at the Sandown 500,’’ Whincup said.