New Holden ace Chaz Mostert has blown his rivals away during Supercars practice at the season-opening Adelaide 500.
The long-time Ford favourite switch’s to the red lion in the off-season is reaping early rewards after setting a serious pace around the South Australian capital’s street circuit on Friday.
Mostert finished in front of two-time defending Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin and Ford stalwart Will Davison.
“The saddest thing is that it’s practice, not qualifying, we’d be happier if it was qualifying,” he said.
“The car felt pretty good, it still feels loose out there.
“Every time you drive in a different team, you feel like you find out more and more of yourself.”
McLaughlin was outside the top-three in the first two practice sessions but fired late on Friday.
“We didn’t really roll out that well and we’ve just chewed it up over the weekend, but it’s really nice now,” McLaughlin said.
Davison continued a promising start to 2020, making it third straight top-three practice finish.
The Milwaukee Racing veteran fought back from some early drama in the second session to finish behind van Gisbergen.
Davison lost control of his Mustang early in the session and had to be towed out of the sand, but fortunately the car was undamaged.
“We’re still going to be learning over the weekend … what’s the balance going to do and what do we need to tune for,” Davison said.
“We’ll just keep going to go fast at the moment.”
Van Gisbergen’s Red Bull teammate Jamie Whincup was leading for much of the second session, but was bumped back to third fastest.
The Holden great will announce on Saturday that he plans to continue racing next year after weeks of speculation about his future.
Meanwhile, drivers are still trying to come to grips with the range of technical changes implemented during the off-season.
Qualifying on Saturday will lead into the 78-lap season-opening race.