Brown fastest, SVG causes red flag in final Adelaide practice

WILL Brown has topped final practice at the VAILO Adelaide 500, but all eyes were on the struggles of championship contender Shane van Gisbergen.

The Kiwi’s difficult preparation for the title decider continued, having yesterday declared himself uncomfortable with his car even after qualifying for the Top 10 Shootout.

Van Gisbergen ran down the escape road at Turn 4 on his first flying lap, and he did it again soon after – only this time, he was unable to flick-spin to return to the track.

In fact, battling to engage reverse, the red flags were shown with 23:31 on the clock.

MORE: How Kostecki can clinch the Supercars title today

At that point, Brown was on top at 1:19.6755s, having just knocked off Practice 1 pacesetter Chaz Mostert.

It was only a short stoppage as marshals helped van Gisbergen get back pointing in the right direction, but SVG’s trouble continued once the session resumed.

As Brown and Thomas Randle traded fast times, the #97 Red Bull Ampol Camaro had been poised to lower the benchmark before another mistake at the final corner.

That left Mostert to reclaim the ascendancy, now on a 1:19.5364s.

As those proceeding to the Top 10 Shootout (12:05pm local/12:35pm AEDT) stepped up the intensity for one-lap rehearsals, it was Cam Waters who laid down the gauntlet with a 1:19.1444s five minutes from the finish.

Brown, Randle and David Reynolds all subsequently slotted in between Waters and Mostert, before Brown banged in the fastest lap of the weekend (1:19.0313s) after the chequered flag dropped.

“We did a race run and then got into a Shootout simulation,” Brown said.

“Really happy with the pace we had and hopefully we can get that right in the Shootout.

“It’s pretty tough to get Turns 1 and 2 right, the cars are getting quite loose under braking into there, so it’s about getting through there and then seeing where you end up in the lap.”

Waters added: “It’s a lot better than what it was yesterday. It was fighting us a lot yesterday, but I think we made it really nice overnight.

“Probably could have gone a bit quicker then, but I wanted to keep it in one piece for the Shootout.”

V8 Sleuth’s coverage of the VAILO Adelaide 500 is proudly presented by Bad Boy Mowers – explore the world of Bad Boy Mowers with the new Spring/Summer catalogue of high-performance mowers here.

Championship leader Brodie Kostecki was a low-key 16th but that was still better than van Gisbergen, who was 17th after kerb strikes scuppered his later runs.

While 15 drivers will now wait for race start at 2:50pm local time (3:20pm AEDT), there is a single-lap shootout to come first for the 10 fastest qualifiers yesterday.

The order for the Top 10 Shootout will be: James Golding, Waters, Mostert, Brown, Anton De Pasquale, Randle, van Gisbergen, Matt Payne, Reynolds and provisional polesitter Kostecki.

RESULTS: Practice 3, 2023 VAILO Adelaide 500