The predicted rain held off for the third hour-long session of the weekend, with crews largely focussed on pitstop practice during the early running.
In between practice stops the times swiftly tumbled, Shane van Gisbergen starting out in the mid-2m06s before dipping into the low fives on his next run.
By the seven-minute mark Brodie Kostecki was into the late fours before, a little over 10 minutes later, Cam Waters lowered the benchmark to a 2m04.573s.
Waters improved that time to a 2m04.407s before handing over to co-driver James Moffat for the last quarter of the session.
With five minutes to go Will Davison jumped the top with a 2m04.207s, the Dick Johnson Racing driver then going purple in Sector 1 on his next lap before traffic over the top cost him time.
However the first time was good enough for top spot with a two-tenths margin over the Waters/Moffat Mustang.
It was the second time the #17 Shell Mustang has topped a session after Davison was fastest in Practice 1 on Thursday morning.
"Two sessions now and we're at the top," said Davison. "We don't look into that too much, because we know there's lots going on, but clearly we're trending in the right direction.
"We're trying some stuff because we weren't good enough here last year. I'm really glad we've got some dry running to get the knowledge that we have. We our outside our normal window.
"It's really enjoyable. The track is definitely not as good as yesterday. All in all, track felt worse, but we've made some good ground."
Kostecki got down to a 2m04.508s to seal third spot, while Tim Slade made late gains to pop up in fourth with a 2m04.591s.
Chaz Mostert was fifth fastest ahead of Will Brown, Andre Heimgartner and Anton De Pasquale.
Thomas Randle was ninth while van Gisbergen could manage just 10th after mid-session efforts to improve were twice ruined by front locking.
That was the only Triple Eight car to make the Top 10, with the Craig Lowndes/Declan Fraser wildcard entry in 14th and the Broc Feeney/Jamie Whincup car 17th fastest.
For the second day running the Erebus Motorsport wildcard had mechanical issues, with Richie Stanaway effectively missing the second half of the session.
That followed a starter motor problem yesterday morning that limited running and left Stanaway dead last in this session.
The action continues with Practice 4 at 1pm local time.
| Cla | Driver | Car | Laps | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
 Will Davison Alex Davison
|
Ford Mustang GT | 24 | 2'04.2077 | |
| 2 |
Cameron Waters James Moffat
|
Ford Mustang GT | 20 | 2'04.4070 | 0.1993 |
| 3 |
Brodie Kostecki David Russell
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 20 | 2'04.5084 | 0.3007 |
| 4 |
Tim Slade Tim Blanchard
|
Ford Mustang GT | 19 | 2'04.5916 | 0.3839 |
| 5 |
Chaz Mostert  Fabian Coulthard
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 19 | 2'04.6170 | 0.4093 |
| 6 |
Will Brown Jack Perkins |
Holden Commodore ZB | 20 | 2'04.8906 | 0.6829 |
| 7 |
Andre Heimgartner Dale Wood
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 18 | 2'04.9542 | 0.7465 |
| 8 |
Anton De Pasquale Tony D'Alberto
|
Ford Mustang GT | 20 | 2'04.9714 | 0.7637 |
| 9 |
Thomas Randle Zak Best |
Ford Mustang GT | 22 | 2'05.0096 | 0.8019 |
| 10 |
Shane van Gisbergen Garth Tander
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 20 | 2'05.0372 | 0.8295 |
| 11 |
Nick Percat Warren Luff
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 21 | 2'05.0463 | 0.8386 |
| 12 |
David Reynolds Matt Campbell
|
Ford Mustang GT | 17 | 2'05.0535 | 0.8458 |
| 13 |
James Courtney Zane Goddard
|
Ford Mustang GT | 20 | 2'05.0998 | 0.8921 |
| 14 |
Craig Lowndes Declan Fraser |
Holden Commodore ZB | 22 | 2'05.3262 | 1.1185 |
| 15 |
Todd Hazelwood Jayden Ojeda |
Holden Commodore ZB | 20 | 2'05.3739 | 1.1662 |
| 16 |
Bryce Fullwood Dean Fiore
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 22 | 2'05.4100 | 1.2023 |
| 17 |
Broc Feeney Jamie Whincup
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 20 | 2'05.4520 | 1.2443 |
| 18 |
Lee Holdsworth Matthew Payne |
Ford Mustang GT | 23 | 2'05.4666 | 1.2589 |
| 19 |
Jake Kostecki Kurt Kostecki
|
Ford Mustang GT | 21 | 2'05.5918 | 1.3841 |
| 20 |
Scott Pye Tyler Everingham |
Holden Commodore ZB | 17 | 2'05.5995 | 1.3918 |
| 21 |
James Golding Dylan O'Keeffe |
Holden Commodore ZB | 21 | 2'05.7797 | 1.5720 |
| 22 |
Mark Winterbottom Michael Caruso
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 15 | 2'05.8353 | 1.6276 |
| 23 |
Macauley Jones Jordan Boys |
Holden Commodore ZB | 19 | 2'06.0132 | 1.8055 |
| 24 |
Chris Pither Cameron Hill |
Holden Commodore ZB | 21 | 2'06.1114 | 1.9037 |
| 25 |
Jack Le Brocq Aaron Seton
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 20 | 2'06.5400 | 2.3323 |
| 26 |
Matt Chahda Jaylyn Robotham |
Holden Commodore ZB | 22 | 2'06.7102 | 2.5025 |
| 27 |
Jack Smith Jaxon Evans
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 21 | 2'07.0021 | 2.7944 |
| 28 |
Richie Stanaway Greg Murphy |
Holden Commodore ZB | 12 | 2'07.1515 | 2.9438 |
| View full results | |||||
