Pye leads Triple Eight one-two
By Thomas Miles
Date posted: 11 October 2025
Despite a scare in the sand, Triple Eight controlled Practice 5 with Scott Pye and Jamie Whincup well clear of the rest.
The teammates led almost the entire co-driver-only session with Pye nailing a late lap on fresh tyres to post a 2:05.6647.
He was a slender 0.0442s clear of Whincup, who bounced back after spinning into the Hell Corner sand trap.
The seven-time champion was one of two drivers to be caught out by the opening corner, with wildcard Dalton doing the same.
Beautiful blue skies welcomed the Supercars on Shootout day with the co-drivers having the first crack
WAU started strong, going one-two after the opening laps with Coulthard leading Ojeda by 0.090s as the Fords filled the top five.
However, few had the chance to improve as the red flags arrived just six minutes in.
Fresh from the Super2 pole, Dalton struggled to switch from the Gen2 Mustang to the Gen3 and got beached in the Hell Corner sand.
He locked up and went head-on into the tyre barrier.
A Super2 rival in Bates impressed when the session went green, going to the top before being pipped by Winterbottom by a tenth.
However, Whincup was back to his best and was the first into the fives.
His 2:05.7089 set at the 22-minute mark was a mighty half a second clear on the rest of the field.
But Whincup’s charge came to a sudden stop just five minutes later when he became the second victim of Hell Corner.
The seven-time champion locked the right front and could not gather the lose, spinning backwards into the sand, just enough to get stuck.
With just over half a session left, teams switched focus to race runs.
Ojeda and Slade were some of the few who made significant leaps, rising to third and fifth, respectively.
The likes of Pye and Tander settled into the 2m06s consistently as Morris impressed to get ahead of them in sixth.
As the final 10 minutes approached, drivers started to pump in the times on fresher tyres.
Holdsworth was the first to make a move, pushing the #20 Camaro into the top three despite feeling some discomfort before Coulthard and D’Alberto jumped him.
The first driver to come close to Whincup was Triple Eight teammate Pye inside the final four minutes.
Pye pushed hard on fresh tyres and clawed 0.0442s clear of Whincup.
Meanwhile, the likes of Winterbottom, Tander and Bates also improved to secure spots in the top four, slightly further off the pace.
Many drivers were firing personal best times, but none could get close enough to seriously challenge the Bulls.
Dalton recovered well from his earlier mistake and got as high as 18th, the best result for the #5 Tickford wildcard.
Some drivers, such as Boys, Stewart and Fraser did not run a set of fresh tyres at the death.
Teams have just one more practice to fine-tune the cars at 13.10 AEDT.
2025 Bathurst 1000 Practice 5 results
1: Scott Pye 2:05.6647
2: Jamie Whincup +0.0442
3: Mark Winterbottom +0.3516
4: Garth Tander +0.3878
5: Zach Bates +0.3955
6: Fabian Coulthard +0.5885
7: Nash Morris +0.6312
8: Tim Slade +0.6436
9: Jarrod Hughes +0.6743
10: Tony D’Alberto +0.6756
11: Lee Holdsworth +0.7062
12: Jayden Ojeda +0.7118
13: James Moffat +0.9024
14: David Russell +0.9846
15: Dale Wood +1.0590
16: Cameron McLeod +1.0821
17: Todd Hazelwood +1.0888
18: Lochie Dalton +1.1127
19: Harri Jones +1.1313
20: Zak Best +1.1708
21: Jack Perkins +1.2468
22: Aaron Seton +1.2659
23: Jordan Boys +1.4599
24: Jobe Stewart +1.4936
25: Declan Fraser +1.9039
26: Jack Smith +2.2308
Image: Peter Norton
2025 Bathurst 1000 schedule
Thursday, October 9
PRACTICE 1 1: R. Wood/J. Ojeda 2:05.1029 2: A. De Pasquale/H. Jones +0.4236 3: K. Allen/D. Wood +0.8132
PRACTICE 2 1: Scott Pye/W. Brown 2:06.8395 2: David Russell/J. Golding +0.1461 3: Tony D’Alberto/W. Davison +0.6345
Friday, October 10
PRACTICE 3 1: B.Feeney/J.Whincup 2:04.9763 2: R.Wood/J.Ojeda +0.0341 3: W.Brown/S.Pye +0.0784
PRACTICE 4 1: C. Mostert/F. Coulthard 2:04.6591 2: N. Percat/T. Slade +0.0754 3: B. Kostecki/T. Hazelwood +0.1210
QUALIFYING 1 Brodie Kostecki 2:04.0307 2 Broc Feeney +0.0064 3 Ryan Wood +0.0560
Saturday, October 11
PRACTICE 5 (co-drivers only) 10:05 AM – 11:05 AM
PRACTICE 6 1:10 PM – 2:10 PM
TOP TEN SHOOTOUT 5:05 PM – 5:50 PM
Bathurst Day, October 12
WARM UP 8:30 AM – 8:50 AM
THE GREAT RACE 11:45 AM (161 laps)
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