TeamVodafone’s Jamie Whincup has picked up where he left off, following his clean sweep in the Middle East, by recording the fastest time in today’s practice sessions at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide.

Whincup endured an eventful session as the team worked through a series of changes to make the # 1 TeamVodafone Commodore better suited to the Adelaide street circuit.  

Acknowledging the tight, bumpy circuit was vastly different to the fast, free flowing ones in the Middle East Whincup said he was not yet 100% comfortable with the car.  

“That was a really tough session,” Whincup said.

“We slowly progressed with the car but it is so hectic around this circuit which makes it hard to get a clean lap.

“I was also sin-binned for two minutes for an infringement at Turn 2 but hey, the rules are the rules and I will make sure I don’t make the same mistake again,” he concluded.

Teammate Craig Lowndes was fifth fastest but said he was still looking for more out of the car for tomorrow’s qualifying.

“It’s a good start, the car is nice and very forgiving to drive,” Lowndes said.

“I caught traffic on my flying lap on the second set of tyres so I wasn’t able to get the best out of it.

“There is still a lot of improvement to come so I am sure we will make some gains tomorrow,” he added.

Tomorrow’s on track action will see qualifying for the first leg of the Clipsal 500 commence at 10.30am (ACDT) and Race 5 of the V8 Supercar Championship Series (250km) will get underway at 2.35pm (ACDT).