Payne fastest in Sandown 500 practice, Mostert struggles

Matt Payne set the fastest time in the second practice session for the Penrite Oil Sandown 500, finishing 0.0735 seconds ahead of fellow Ford driver Broc Feeney. Payne said the team had worked hard on the event and had improved on last year, although he noted a few areas still to tune.

Both Triple Eight Race Engineering entries made the top 10, with Will Brown ninth. Cooper Murray was the leading Chevrolet in third for PremiAir Racing, while Andre Heimgartner set the pace for Toyota in fourth. Anton De Pasquale moved to seventh on his final lap after being near the bottom of the order.

Chaz Mostert was only 20th in the second session, around half a second off the pace, after reportedly suffering a shift-cut issue that the team planned to fix before qualifying. Qualifying takes place on Saturday at 11:20am AEDT.