Brendan Lines

February 21, 2020

Red Bull have shown their hand in Practice 2 as Shane van Gisbergen went fastest posting the first sub – one minute twenty lap for the weekend, keeping the Holden flag flying high as the Commodores and Mustangs continue to parry on the streets of Adelaide.

Shane van Gisbergen on a charge in Practice 2 – Image: Adelaide 500

There was anger out on track as the teams began to show more of their race pace, yet the unforgiving street circuit continued to punish those who dare, as the session was red-flagged twice after Will Davison and Scott Pye’s separate incidents.

Second in Practice 1 yesterday, van Gisbergen has been on the pace, yet found himself ‘hating life’ wrestling his new ZB Commodore’s control damper suspension challenging.

Struggling for pace in his first run van Gisbergen pitted, opting for the team to increase his rear-wing angle to the maximum thirteen degrees allowable — the move paid off as the Kiwi posted a 1:19.807s on his 14^th lap for the session.

The best of the Mustangs was Tickford’s Will Davison who built on his third fastest from yesterday. That was after a wild ride going straight on into the gravel at the racecourse section of Victoria Park.

But after his car returned to the garage during the red-flag period, Davison dusted himself off and the team pulled the gravel out of his Mustang, Davison later posted a 1:19.897s.

Red Bull Holden’s Jaime Whincup was also in the discussion, posting a 1:19.951s, but after two stints his best lap earned him third fastest for the session.

In similar fashion to Practice 1, today’s session ended with another incident as Scott Pye’s Commodore appeared to have a suspension failure mid-corner slamming into the barriers coming onto the Brock Straight.

Pye spoke with Fox Sports after the session.

“I think maybe we broke a shock, I’m not entirely sure I just went into the apex, the front right broke and I missed that hard left, missed the tyre-wall and hit the concrete wall hard,” he said.

Reigning champ Scott Mclaughlin remains .240s off the lead going into Practice 3 later this afternoon, but still finished in the top ten to gain a place in tomorrow’s Qualifying 2.

Practice 3 kicks off 6.00pm local time tonight.