Anton De Pasquale – No. 11 Shell V-Power Racing Ford
Practice 1 – 18th (Fastest Time: 1m13.8440s)
Practice 2 – 7th (Fastest Time: 1m12.6109s)
Will Davison – No. 17 Shell V-Power Racing Ford
Practice 1 – 2nd (Fastest Time: 1m12.9986s)
Practice 2 – 2nd (Fastest Time: 1m12.5043s)
Practice 1 Recap
The allocated tyre is the Dunlop Soft tyre, and with the return of fuel stops for the races, the crew were suited up during the first practice to simulate race conditions.
Both the Shell V-Power Racing Team Ford Mustang GTs were fitted with used tyres for the opening laps of the first session. De Pasquale completed four laps in his opening run and Davison five laps before coming back to the garage to debrief and make adjustments to the cars.
With 25 minutes remaining in the session, De Pasquale returned to the track using the same tyres he began the session with. The crew performed a practice fuel stop in pit lane on Davison’s No. 17 car before sending him back out to complete five more laps on his same used tyres.
De Pasquale completed three laps during his second stint on track before coming into the garage for further adjustments. The crew did another practice fuel stop, this time De Pasquale’s No. 11 Mustang. He did not return to the garage again and retained the same used tyres until the chequered flag.
Davison made one final stop where the crew strapped on green Soft tyres and sent him back out with just under 3 minutes on the clock. Davison finished Practice 1 in P2 while De Pasquale, who was still on used tyres, finished P18.
Practice 2 Recap
After a 3-hour break, we were back on track for a final 40-minute Practice session. In similar style to the first session, the Shell V-Power Racing Team Ford Mustangs were fitted with used tyres for a short four and five lap warmup.
Davison retained the same set of tyres for his second stint, while De Pasquale headed back out on green tyres. At the 13 minute mark, De Pasquale jumped to the top of the timesheet with a 1m12.7559s.
During his third stint, Davison clocked his best time of the session (1m13.0089s) and jumped to P5 before heading back to the pits.
For the final hit-out of the day, both cars were fitted with a set of green tyres. De Pasquale finished in P7 and Davison P2.
Qualifying starts tomorrow at 11:15am (AEST).
DE PASQUALE QUOTE
“It all felt pretty good, and we really just ran through our program. We learnt a couple of things, and I feel like we are there or thereabouts. So we’ll tune it up again overnight, try and make it a bit faster and see what qualifying is like tomorrow.”
DAVISON QUOTE
“We didn’t roll out well at all, but it’s only the second time we’ve had Friday on track 2021. When you’re not in the sweet spot with the car and when you’re still new to the team, it’s hard. When the car is hooked up, it’s easy to be fast, but when you’re out of the window, it really tests your relationship with your chief engineer.”
“We had to throw a lot at the car, so I enjoyed it at the end there when we got some rewards. We took some really good steps forward and got some good direction. I definitely need more, but I was quite encouraged to see the final time.”