Kiwis on the V8 pace in Bahrain

MARK HORSBURGH

BLUE ON BLUE: Shane van Gisbergen drives the Stone Brothers Racing Ford to the fourth fastest practice time ahead of the latest round of the V8 Supercars at the spectacular Bahrain F1 circuit.

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Kiwis Shane van Gisbergen, Steven Richards and Greg Murphy were prominent in practice for second round of the V8 Supercars championship in Bahrain early today.

Van Gisbergen, fresh from his first podium finish in the first round at Abu Dhabi last weekend, posted the fourth fastest time for Stone Brothers Racing at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Murphy, who missed the first round with duties as a guest on the Top Gear Live Show in New Zealand, took little time in getting to grips with his first drive in the Castrol Holden colours to be 10th fastest.

Fellow Kiwi, Ford Performance Racing's Steven Richards fifth

Even with an extra 80 minutes practice time available to some teams, they were unable to prevent another TeamVodafone 1-2 sweep of the practice session.

Both Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup used new tyres at the end on the circuit that was part unfamiliar to the teams with the extension to include the full Grand Prix track that Formula One used last year.

"Most people walked the track yesterday and had a good idea of what it would be like," Lowndes said. "Jamie and I had a good run last time we were here and we got to know that new section of the track pretty quickly.

"The car wasn’t perfect. We made a lot of adjustments during the first set of tyres. It was a bit of an unknown setup until the end but a green tyre around here is very rewarding if you get the lines right."

Toll Holden Racing Team's Garth Tander and Will Davison had the benefit of the extra running time following their disastrous season opener in Abu Dhabi last weekend under the rules which give the bottom half of the field two more practice sessions.

Jack Daniel's Racing's Todd Kelly, who also had a terrible Abu Dhabi weekend, did see some benefits for third fastest ahead of Van Gisbergen.

But Tander (sixth) and Davison (12th) were still more than a second off the pace compared to Whincup and Lowndes who set the fastest two times late in the day on the tyre-tough Bahrain track.

Kelly said the small reward of extra practice time would easily be swapped for a better start to the Championship.

''He (Whincup) is not last so that's not fair either,'' Kelly said. ''We are looking at this weekend as a clean slate and the first round of the Championship.''

Tander was at the top of the sheets late in practice and spent the last few minutes watching from the garage. In the end his time was not enough but practice is practice and it is likely they will fire back tonight (NZ time) in qualifying and for the first race.

Richards’ team-mate Mark Winterbottom (16th) was also struggling in the Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon, as was Jim Beam Racing’s James Courtney (14th).