Randle crashes heavily, Mostert tops final practice

ADELAIDE’S notorious Turn 8 has bitten hard, with Thomas Randle’s impressive VALO Adelaide 500 taking a turn for the worse.

Randle has been fast all event, including topping the opening session on Thursday, and sat atop the timesheets for a chunk of Practice 3.

However, it ended in tears when Randle slammed into the outside wall at Turn 8 inside the final minute of the session.

That’s a tough end to Practice 3 for Thomas Randle, making huge contact with the wall at Turn 8 :pensive:

Going to be a big few hours for Tickford to get it turned around for this afternoon’s race #RepcoSC pic.twitter.com/ZWNCHbjuti

— Supercars (@supercars) December 3, 2022

With severe left-side damage, the Castrol Mustang is in grave doubt to make the Top 10 Shootout, for which Randle is due to be the first car out on track at 12:35pm local time (1:05pm AEDT).

It could even be a race against the clock to make the Race 33 grid this afternoon at 3:15pm local time (3:45pm AEDT).

Randle is the second driver to find trouble at Turn 8 this week, following Macauley Jones on Thursday.

#Adelaide500 #turn8 Thomas Randle goes in hard @supercars pic.twitter.com/RTDRiGmo3Y

— Gordon Anderson (@Gougoodthing64) December 3, 2022

Qualifying fast-man Chaz Mostert topped the session with a 1:18.8571s.

Anton De Pasquale had been on track to take over top spot, setting two purple sectors before the red flags curtailed his run.

In the end, Mostert was the only driver below the 1:19 marker, and still a couple of tenths of yesterday’s record 1:18.6763s.

Behind Mostert was Andre Heimgartner, James Courtney, Shane van Gisbergen and Randle in fifth.

De Pasquale was forced to settle for 15th.

RESULTS: Practice 3, 2022 VALO Adelaide 500