Heimgartner tops maiden Gen3 Supercars practice

Andre Heimgartner will go down in history as the first driver to score P1 in the Supercars Gen3 era after topping first practice at Newcastle.

Heimgartner recorded a 1:11.995 to beat Will Brown and David Reynolds by 0.181s in a competitive and clean 45-minute session despite a number of moments in the new cars, which looked visibly harder to drive.

The result continues Brad Jones Racing’s solid start to 2023, with car #8 also leading the field at the Sydney pre-season test day.

Heimgartner was the only driver to record a 1:11s lap time as the new Gen3 cars finshed just 1.3s slower than Scott McLaughlin’s lap which topped the corresponding session in 2019 in a Gen2 Ford Mustang.

The two Walkinshaw Andretti United Mustangs led by Nick Percat rounded out the top five in their first session in a Ford ahead of the two PremiAir Racing cars.

Bryce Fullwood, Will Davison and Mark Winterbottom also finished in the top 10, just ahead of Shane van Gisbgergen, while all four Tickford cars finished in the bottom six.

All 25 cars immediately rolled out of pit lane with Supercars CEO Shane Howard and head of motorsport Adrian Burgees watching on to mark the historic moment.

Shane van Gisbergen posted the first flying lap of the Gen3 era with a 1:22.2115 albeit on a wet tyre. 

But that was quickly eclipsed by a host of drivers with Mostert going fastest recording a 1:14.4467. Only Mark Winterbottom could replicate a 1:14s time in their first lap.

Mostert then lowered the benchmark to a 1:13.3132 at the five minute mark, which remained at the top for the first 20 minutes.

Erebus Motorsport’s Brodie Kostecki emerged as the top Camaro, three tenths back ahead of David Reynolds and Will Brown after the first runs.

Heimgartner was the first to go off, bowling a wide at the end of Turn 2, but emerged unscathed.

Broc Feeney, Waters, Macauley Jones, Matthew Payne and Jack Le Brocq also did the same, utilising the runoff.

Brown locked up, but still commited to the corner and was lucky to aviod the tyres towards the end of the session.

Initially Brown and then David Reynolds both displaced Mostert from the top, with the Grove Racing Mustang going fastest with a 1:13.1275 at the halfway mark.

After teams came to grips with the new cars across the first half hour, drivers armed with green tyres pushed the limits as the times tumbled in the final quarter of an hour.

Nick Percat brought Walkinshaw Andretti United back to the top, rising from 15th to first, but was quickly displaced by Heimgartner 1:13.084.

Van Gisbergen then reclaimed P1 by just 0.074s with 10 minutes left and was immediately beaten by Mostert, who was the first to dip into the 1:12s window.

But the field was blown away by Heimgartner, who went nine tenths clear with a lighting run on a set of fresh tyres with six and a half minutes to go.

A form guide for Gen3 is now finally established, but the picture will only become clearer as the day goes on with each practice vital.

Teams will enjoy two more practice sessions this afternoon.

2023 Newcastle 500 Practice 1 results

1: A. Heimgartner 1:11.9958

2: W. Brown +0.1813

3: D. Reynolds +0.2021

4: N. Percat +0.5042

5: C. Mostert +0.6805

6: J. Golding +0.6910

7: T. Slade 0.8798

8: B. Fullwood +0.8972

9: W. Davison +0.9232

10: M. Winterbottom +0.9976

11: S. van Gisbergen +1.0145

12: M. Jones +1.1055

13: J. Le Brocq +1.2276

14: A. De Pasquale +1.3199

15: M. Payne +1.3578

16: C. Hill +1.3697

17: B. Kostecki +1.3917

18: S. Pye +1.4323

19: C. Waters +1.5648

20: B. Feeney +1.5845

21: T. Hazelwood +1.6746

22: J. Smith +1.7566

23: J. Courtney +1.7722

24: D. Fraser +2.2450

25: T. Randle +2.4296