Red Bull Holden have showed their card late in the Melbourne 400 1^st Practice topping the time sheets ahead of Tickford Racing’s Lee Holdsworth as teams juggle the unknowns adapting their cars to the Albert Park track.

The soft tyres were a popular choice among the field as Holdsworth set his 1:54.6244 on just his second lap of the session.

“You’ve got to be on it from that first lap because the tyres degrade so quickly, put together a reasonable time and still a bit left on the table,” Holdsworth said.

“The tyres are going off crazy, so there a lot of mistakes going on, I think we’ll see a lot of mistakes out there, in we’ve got a lot less aero this year and the cars are a lot harder to drive.”

Van Gisbergen had his own moment going off early in the session with a brake lock-up but went on to post the second- best time of the session with a 1:56.6080.

Coming in hot for his 500^th race appearance for his career, Jaimie Whincup set a late fastest time in his Red Bull Holden with a 1:56.4196.

The session was Red-flagged early as Scott Pye’s ZB Commodore suffered a battery issue coming to a halt on Turn 8.

Interestingly, DJR Penske pitted the Mustangs of Scott McLaughlin and Fabian Coulthard in response to the Red-flag, but did change their respective hard tyres when the session went back to green.

The current championship leader McLaughlin says there maybe a bit of method on the madness at the DJR garage.

“I prefer a soft around here but I think a hard will really stir the racing up, but I’m picking everyone will want to get on that soft as quick as they can,” he said.