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Motorsport
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Andrew van Leeuwen

Bathurst 1000: Payne leads Grove Racing practice one-two

It was a rapid start to the hour-long session with Chaz Mostert and Brodie Kostecki immediately matching the best of the Thursday times.

For Mostert it was a 2m05.730s before Kostecki chimed in with a 2m05.577s, the fastest time of the weekend to that point.

The majority of teams then settled into a rhythm of brake and driver change practice as co-drivers cycled through many of the cars.

Kostecki, however, continued in the #99 Erebus Camaro, easing the easing the benchmark down to a 2m05.437s at the 20-minute mark.

Kostecki's gap at the top narrowed in the second half of the session when Anton De Pasquale put his DJR Ford into second with a 2m05.623s.

With just over a quarter of an hour to go the session was red flagged when the #5 Tickford Mustang rolled to a stop on Conrod Straight with Zak Best at the wheel.

The issue was a broken engine belt, Best able to fire up and drive back to the pits a few minutes later after the issue had been diagnosed.

The Kostecki time held on until the final few minutes when the Grove Racing pair switched their attention to green tyre runs.

That vaulted Payne to the top, the rookie hauling a mighty 2m05.285s out of his Penrite Mustang.

Teammate Reynolds then fell just short of that time and he dropped into second place with a 2m05.373s at the flag.

That dropped Kostecki back to third, ahead of Will Davison, who was a late improver to end up fourth ahead of teammate De Pasquale.

Cam Hill was an impressive fifth fastest in his MSR Camaro followed by Broc Feeney, Mostert, Cam Waters and Andre Heimgartner.

Several expected front-runners were outside the top 10, with the Will Brown/Jack Perkins car just 16th fastest.

Shane van Gisbergen and Richie Stanaway, meanwhile, were 19th fastest.

There is one more hour-long practice session today at 1:05pm before qualifying at 4:15pm.

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