The Red Bull’s of Shane van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup topped Quaifying 1 and 2 of the Melbourne 400 respectively, earning Whincup a prime opportunity for a potential win in his 500^th race weekend.

Eyes on the prize for Jamie Whincup -Image Red Bull

The Holden master lit up the middle sector of the Albert Park track in Qualifying 2 going point-one of a second clear of the Tickford Racing Mustang of Cam Waters, with a 01:55.2809s.

Whincup took some damage on Turn 1 resulting in a bent rim, but with a new tyre set he took to the track and set his top time.

Red Bull now hold both Pole Positions on offer so far this week, a valuable advantage given the limited passing opportunities around Albert Park.

But the X-factor of the weekend that may counter the advantage of pole is tyres says van Gisbergen.

“ It [Tyre difference] is quite big really, to see the lap times like two seconds two and a half seconds, Jamie’s run went off about two seconds in the session this morning, in the afternoon the hot session it might equal out, really you’ll only be able to do two or three laps on the hard and sit out the rest,

“It’s the tyres making racing better this year, hopefully the degradation happens, the weather is pretty hot, hopefully it stays hot, makes the racing good, last year was so spread out because of the cars, hopefully this year it’s closer, hopefully it makes it a bit closer with the strategy differences,” he said.

Will Davison for Milwaukee Racing has been ‘Mr. Consistency’ for season 2020, he now continues his run at the ‘pointy end’ qualifying third in both tomorrow’s races.

The big shock of the session was Penrite Racing’s David Reynolds who after an impressive second fastest in Practice 2.

Reynolds had a wide moment at Turn 12 earning him a curb-strike to his name deleting his time, he now slumps to 17^th for the start of Race 1 tomorrow

2^nd Practice of the Melbourne 400 has been Red-flagged in the closing minutes, but Penrite Racing’s Anton De Pasquale and David Reynold’s were able to keep piling on fastest laps to post a one-two finish for the team.

Macauley Jones’ Big lock-up – Image: Supercars

The follow up session to this afternoon’s 1^st practice saw the teams still juggling tyres for qualifying which is just over an hour away.

Third fastest for the session Rick Kelly posted a late 1:56.9433s, but it may not be a true comparison of outright pace.

“The time sheets look for us look very good we’re in third and it looks fantastic,” Kelly said.

“But we really wanted the session to run out there, so we could see where we sat compared to everyone that was on a lap or just about to start a lap.”

Over at the Penrite Racing garage David Reynolds said it wasn’t smooth sailing with their own woes finding the right tyre selection.

“Right now we’re battling a bit of balance, obviously we’ve got to run the hard and soft tyres, we tried the hard tyre in practice one, and the car felt horrendously bad, then we tried the sort tyre which gives you the grip and the confidence, we’re kind of making in-roads now,” he said.

With Just minutes to go for the session, Macauley Jones’ BJR Commodore suffered A brake failure that saw him in the gravel at Turn 1, Red-flagging the session.

But De Pasquale had the job of going fastest already done, leaving the question of could there have been more pace.

“We always expect to roll out pretty good, just to expect having a bit of pace, you know everyone puts a lot of effort in, but so far it’s alright, obviously the red flag kind of ruins the last runs,” he said.

Qualifying session #1 for Race #1 of the Melbourne 400 kicks-off 4.25pm local time.

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.