Kiwi Richie Stanaway showed off his wet weather skills again by topping Practice 4 at a saturated Sandown.
Stanaway’s 1:14.4910 was just 0.0361s clear of Broc Feeney, Chaz Mostert and Will Davison, who were all covered by less than a second.
The wind and rain was at full force when drivers hit the track for the extended 40 minute session and many were caught out.
Whilst most survived and simply toured the grass, James Moffat had a big spin and found the fence at Turn 3, but was able to carry on.
All 26 cars hit the circuit when the lights went out and Stanaway showed what he could do straight away by posting the fastest opening lap time, but the times were soon tumbling.
Stanaway was displaced by Feeney, who was the first to dip into the 1m16s and 1m15s windows.
He was soon joined by Evans, Percat, Brown, Kostecki and Davison.
Hill was the first to have a moment coming out off the final corner, while both Waters and Feeney skated off.
Kostecki was the first to overcome Feeney by the meagre margin of 0.0062s with a 1:15.8627.
The two Blanchard Racing Team Mustangs had a close call at Turn 4, but both carried on and soared into the top five at the halfway mark of the session.
In more mid session drama, Dean Fiore somehow saved his #50 Camaro from rotating after sliding into Turn 2.
The rivers on the road caught Moffat out as he got crossed up coming out of Turn 3 and whacked the guardrail.
However, the impact was at low speed and Moffat was able to carry on.
At the 22 minute mark Stanaway had the foot down again and produced purple first and third sectors to soar to the top with an impressive 1:15.3818, four tenths faster than Kostecki.
The likes of Mostert, Heimgartner, Courtney and Percat also set purple sects, but could not quite string together a complete lap like the #26.
The BRT veteran still did enough to sit a strong second ahead of Mostert, while rookie teammate Love also sat near the top of the timesheets.
As the session carried on and the rain started to settle down, Stanaway’s benchmark was knocked off.
The sister Penrite Mustang of Payne took its turn in P1 before Feeney, Mostert and Kostecki dived into the 1m14s.
The #88 found the limit on his way to the 1:14.5271 by taking a tour through the Turn 1 infield.
With drivers on fresh wets, the final 10 minutes saw plenty go out, but there were not many changes towards the top of the leaderboard.
Feeney was edged out by Stanaway with 0.0800s covering the top four that was joined by Davison as Fullwood fired to fifth.
Teammate Heimgartner was also showing decent speed in seventh, but joined Waters and Reynolds in having an off-track excursion at the death.
The only car not to do a run in the final 10 minutes was the #1 of Kostecki and Hazelwood.
After getting a feel for the wet conditions, teams will look to find more time in the final practice prior to qualifying at 12.05 AEST.
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