The Red Bull Holden driver was the best of an explosion of fast times in the closing seconds of the session, his 54.776s one of two laps under the existing lap record.

It followed a quiet first session for van Gisbergen, who was just outside the Top 10, the Kiwi claiming better rubber was the key to his upturn in speed.

“We put some good [tyres] on and we’re flying,” he said. “That’s the name of our game, we’re always limited on tyres. We were feeling it out all day, the car has felt terrible. But we kept chipping away, bolted a new set on, and found two seconds.”

The other driver to go under Jamie Whincup’s old practice lap record was points leader Fabian Coulthard, who had jumped to the top with 54.790s with a minute to go, only to be beaten by van Gisbergen moments later.

“We’re pretty happy with the pace at the moment,” he said. “We’re sticking to the plan, we had lots of laps and lots of running. I’m happy with the progress.”

Whincup narrowly missed out on a 54s lap, ending up third with a 55.045s, while Prodrive Racing’s Mark Winterbottom was just behind with a 55.092s.

Chaz Mostert was fifth quickest right behind his teammate Winterbottom, with Craig Lowndes slipping from top spot with two minutes to go to sixth thanks to all the late improvements.

Cam Waters, Will Davison, Todd Kelly, and Nick Percat made up the rest of the Top 10.

The session saw the first red flag of the day, Perth high school student Alex Rullo firing off at the final corner after pulling a bump-and-run on Jamie Whincup just one corner earlier.

He ended up 24th, while new teammate Matt Brabham slipped down to 26th and last, a little over three seconds off the pacesetters.