Jamie Whincup posted the quickest time at the V8 Supercar Championship took to the streets of Hamilton for the first time ahead of the latest round of the series this weekend.
Whincup completed 17 laps of the 3.4km circuit as the series returns to New Zealand, with the new circuit throwing up a number of challenges to the 28 drivers on track.
The current points leader set a time of 1min 24.5843secs during the session with his only minor issues coming from a minor off at turn one and slight suspension problem which was quickly resolved by the Triple Eight-run squad.
“When we came over here we thought we had done our homework and it looks like our predictions are reasonably accurate,” he said. “However, the corners are tighter than expected and the track is a lot bumpier than we thought.
“We had a front suspension failure at the start of the second practice session which was not directly related to the track, the boys fixed it quickly and the car was perfect after that. We are all still learning the in and out lines, so who knows, there could be another second in it.
Whincup was only a fraction of second quicker than defending series champion Garth Tander, just 0.0386secs further back at the wheel of the HRT Commodore as he led the Holden challenge.
Like a number of drivers, Tander admitted it hadn't been easy to get right up to speed on the ‘green' circuit but he was happy with his early position going into qualifying on Saturday.
“I didn't have a lot of confidence at the start, but we kept chipping away and the car got better and we had a good session,” he said. “I didn't want to risk the car early, so we weren't going to push on hard then anyway. Once we made some setup changes and the car was good we started to push on and we were in the top five.
“There's no doubt the track's bumpy, but that's not a criticism. As with all street circuits, qualifying up the front is most important. We need to make sure our car is better for tomorrow as everyone will be making changes tonight.”
![Jamie Whincup - Team Vodafone Falcon [Pic credit: Edge Photographics/Ford]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/414937.jpg)
