Jones tops Payne in opening Melbourne SuperSprint practice

Brad Jones Racing’s Macauley Jones, sporting a special Spongebob Squarepants livery, set a late 1:47.6167 on the Albert Grand Prix Circuit to top New Zealand’s Matt Payne in the opening Supercars practice for the Melbourne Super Sprint.

Payne’s 1:47.6721 was just 0.0554 seconds off the quickest time and 0.0048 faster than Tickford’s Cam Waters, who enters the round in a new Monster Energy Mustang.

Nick Percat showed great pace all session and sat at the top of the timing sheets entering the final minutes before finishing fourth, ahead of Kiwi Jaxon Evans, whose late 1:47.8443 jumped him from 22nd to 5th.

Todd Hazelwood, Chaz Mostert, Anton De Pasquale and Jack Le Brocq complete the top nine, while Andre Heimgartner made for three Kiwis and three Brad Jones Racing entries in the top ten.

Richie Stanaway spent the majority of the session in the top ten until late times bumped him to 12th, behind DJR’s Will Davison.

Ryan Wood, competing at the venue for the first time in his career, completed the most laps of any driver, 16, to go 22nd fastest.

Championship leader Will Brown could only manage the 15th best lap, 0.8416 seconds off the pace, while his Red Bull teammate Broc Feeney finished the opening outing as the 20th quickest.

Wood, Brown and Percat had off-track ventures over the grass at Turn 1 during the session, while Mark Winterbottom scraped the Turn 8 wall late in proceedings but appears to have escaped damage.

Supercars return for second practice at 3.25 pm (NZ Time), ahead of Race 4 and 5 qualifying at 5.10 pm and the opening 19-lap race at 7.55 pm.

Melbourne SuperSprint Practice 1 Results

Header Image: Supercars