It was the first time in the dark on Australian soil since 1997 and it looked seriously cool.

It was the first chance for drivers and the crew to adjust to racing under lights ahead of tomorrow’s spectacle, but it also held a bit of weight. The fastest ten drivers in the combined order from tonight’s session and Practice 2 tomorrow will progress straight through to Qualifying Part 2, and with cooler temperatures, times were likely to be quicker tonight.

Dave posted a 1:29.4886 to sneak in, while Anton was just beyond the current cut off as the top rookie in 11th.

DAVID REYNOLDS

“It was my first time in the car in the dark and as a kid I was afraid of the dark so it’s a new experience for me. It’s quite challenging, you feel like you’re going a lot faster than you normally do. I’m still trying to get used to it. It is hard to hit your markers and spot your exits and a couple spots in particular you need to keep your eye out for because of kerb strikes, so that makes it tricky. It’s all part of the challenge though, and I’m sure it looked pretty cool.

“I don’t think I did the best job during practice, I made a couple of mistakes on my new tyre run and ended up going faster on old tyres, which is very rare around here. Hopefully no one goes faster tomorrow but we’ll wait and see.”