Will’s scorching practice pace
THERE was no stopping Will Davison in the opening three practice sessions of the Townsville 400 as the Erebus Motorsport driver reeled off the fastest lap of the day.
Davison recorded the opening day’s best time when he piloted his Mercedes Benz M159 around the Reid Park track in 1: 13.0250, with his hot lap helping him to the top of the standings for the second practice session.
The experienced Erebus driver backed it up with a third place in the final practice, but the former Bathurst champion insisted his team had plenty of work ahead of them before today’s final practice and the following qualifying session and race.
“It’s obviously great to be the quickest for the day, but it is practice and we were all doing different programs out there,” he said.
“Everyone was running different quality tyres at different times and I’m still in two minds.
“Obviously it’s great to be at the top, but I would like to be more competitive on the hard tyre.”
The 32- year- old driver did his best work on soft tyres yesterday and he said the challenge now was to translate that form into his time on the hard tyres for today’s qualifying and race.
“That didn’t figure in outright contention today, but we have to qualify on the hard tyre tomorrow and my focus is on
Obviously it’s great to be at the top, but I would like
to be more competitive on the
hard tyre
WILL DAVISON
improving there,” Davison said.
“We put a soft tyre on and we seem pretty comfortable on that tyre, but unfortunately there was quite a disparity in balance from one tyre to the other.
“I’m sure it won’t take much to get us right back in contention and we need to be able to make the right changes to have the hard tyre be quick for us in qualifying.”
Davison wasn’t the only driver to shine on day one of the V8 Supercars event in Townsville, with series leader Mark Winterbottom topping the field in the first practice session and his in- form Pepsi Max Crew teammate Chaz Mostert the fastest in practice three.
All 25 V8 Supercars will turn to the track at 9.10am today for a final practice before qualifying gets under way at 1.10pm and the first race begins at 4.15pm.