The rain stayed away for the third free practice session at the Winton Raceway this morning where Scott McLaughlin put his DJR Team Penske on the top of the timesheets with a blistering lap time of 1:19.59 as he sets his sights on the next session, qualifying for this afternoon's race 1 of the weekend.

The only other driver to come close to McLaughlin's time was the Supercheap Auto racer of Chaz Mostert, who finished second, just nine hundredths of a second behind the DJR Penske, promising a brilliant fight for pole position in the upcoming qualifying session.

Shane van Gisbergen put in a last minute lap to go third quickest overall followed by Tim Slade in fourth. McLaughlin did try to better his top time in the final minutes, however the Kiwi racer was unable to get the speed out of his new rubber….

“It was weird. I think everyone had the same dramas. I think we picked up a bit of understeer on the green set but you generally get that,” Scott said on the coverage regarding the new tyres. “We've got to look and study it to make sure we get the greens right. It's still quite dirty on the track but it's reasonably quick. It's a challenge for sure.”

Nick Percat was fifth overall followed by Mark Winterbottom, Michael Caruso, Garth Tander, Fabian Coulthard and David Reynolds rounding out the top ten.