Supercars: Kostecki tops Friday practice for Sandown 500
Series leader Brodie Kostecki has ended the first day at the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 on top, pacing Friday’s third and final practice session.
The championship leader (#99 Coca-Cola Camaro) went fastest with a 1:08.7125s in the 30-minute session, with title combatant Broc Feeney just 0.0003s second behind.
The top 13 cars went quicker than the previous best lap of the day, set by Feeney (#88 Red Bull Ampol Camaro), in the morning Practice 1.
Will Brown, sharing the #9 Coca-Cola Camaro with Jack Perkins, made it an Erebus Motorsport one-three result in a session headlined by a red flag and intra-team Tickford Racing clash.
Todd Hazelwood beached his #3 CoolDrive Mustang with seven minutes remaining, triggering the first and only red flag of the session.
Earlier, Garry Jacobson (#55 Castrol Mustang) hit the rear of Tickford teammate Zak Best’s #5 Snowy River Caravans Mustang, with the latter picking up cosmetic rear damage.
It was an all Chevrolet top eight all told, although the session was largely centred on pit procedures, rather than outright pace.
The Jack Le Brocq/Jayden Ojeda #34 Truck Assist Camaro was fourth ahead of the Shane van Gisbergen/Richie Stanaway #97 Red Bull Ampol Chevrolet.
Andre Heimgartner/Dale Wood (#8 R&J Batteries Camaro), Macauley Jones (#96 Pizza Hut Camaro) and Mark Winterbottom/Michael Caruso (#18 DEWALT Camaro) filled positions six through eight.
Cam Waters/James Moffat (#6 Monster Energy Mustang) and Chaz Mostert/Lee Holdsworth (#25 Mobil 1 Optus Mustang) rounded out the top 10.
Walkinshaw Andretti United excluded from Results
After the first half-hour session the two WAU Fords were under investigation for a drop gear breach.
The team was swiftly found guilty of the breach, leading to Chaz Mostert/Lee Holdsworth and Nick Percat/Fabian Coulthard being disqualified from the session.
“Following an admission by WAU Racing Pty Ltd of a breach of supplementary regulation 6.2 – At this event… all cars are required to install the ‘back Up #1 drop gear of 1.000 from the commencement of the .. event’ (cars #2 and #25 did not have the correct drop gear installed), the stewards disqualified car #2 and car #25 from practice session 1,” read the stewards report.
Friday Practice 3 Results
| POS | NO. | DRIVERS | TEAM | TIME | BEHIND | LAPS |
| 1 | 99 | B. Kostecki D. Russell | Penrite Racing – Erebus | 1:08.713 | +0.000 | 19 |
| 2 | 88 | B. Feeney Whincup | Red Bull Holden Racing Team | 1:08.713 | +0.000 | 20 |
| 3 | 9 | W. Brown J. Perkins | Penrite Racing – Erebus | 1:08.939 | +0.227 | 17 |
| 4 | 34 | J. Le Brocq J. Ojeda | Matt Stone Racing | 1:08.952 | +0.240 | 21 |
| 5 | 97 | Van Gisbergen R. Stanaway | Red Bull Holden Racing Team | 1:08.953 | +0.241 | 19 |
| 6 | 8 | Heimgartner Wood | Brad Jones Racing | 1:08.986 | +0.273 | 13 |
| 7 | 96 | M. Jones J. Boys | Brad Jones Racing (2) | 1:09.119 | +0.406 | 18 |
| 8 | 18 | Winterbottom Caruso | Team 18 | 1:09.149 | +0.437 | 15 |
| 9 | 6 | C. Waters Moffat | Tickford Racing 1 | 1:09.169 | +0.457 | 16 |
| 10 | 25 | Mostert Holdsworth | WAU Racing Pty Ltd | 1:09.201 | +0.489 | 18 |
| 11 | 20 | S. Pye W. Luff | Team 18 | 1:09.259 | +0.546 | 15 |
| 12 | 23 | Slade J. Webb | PremiAir Subway Racing | 1:09.278 | +0.566 | 17 |
| 13 | 26 | Reynolds Tander | Penrite Racing | 1:09.289 | +0.577 | 13 |
| 14 | 17 | Davison A. Davison | Shell V-Power Racing Team | 1:09.300 | +0.587 | 13 |
| 15 | 55 | T. Randle G. Jacobson | Tickford Racing 2 | 1:09.301 | +0.589 | 22 |
| 16 | 31 | J. Golding D. O’Keeffe | PremiAir Subway Racing | 1:09.309 | +0.596 | 19 |
| 17 | 4 | J. Smith J. Evans | Brad Jones Racing (2) | 1:09.313 | +0.601 | 17 |
| 18 | 11 | A. de Pasquale T. D’Alberto | Shell V-Power Racing Team | 1:09.360 | +0.648 | 21 |
| 19 | 2 | Percat Coulthard | WAU Racing Pty Ltd | 1:09.490 | +0.777 | 18 |
| 20 | 56 | D. Fraser T. Everingham | Tickford Racing 2 | 1:09.508 | +0.795 | 17 |
| 21 | 3 | T. Hazelwood Blanchard | CoolDrive Racing | 1:09.529 | +0.817 | 14 |
| 22 | 888 | Lowndes Z. Goddard | Team Vortex | 1:09.554 | +0.842 | 16 |
| 23 | 19 | M. Payne K. Estre | Penrite Racing | 1:09.554 | +0.842 | 14 |
| 24 | 35 | C. Hill J. Robotham | Matt Stone Racing | 1:09.602 | +0.890 | 18 |
| 25 | 5 | Courtney Z. Best | Tickford Racing 1 | 1:09.832 | +1.119 | 14 |
| 26 | 14 | B. Fullwood D. Fiore | Brad Jones Racing | 1:09.951 | +1.239 | 22 |
| 27 | 7 | A. Love J. Kostecki | Racer Industries | 1:10.156 | +1.443 | 15 |