DAVID RUSSELL has picked up where he left off in the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Championship, the Bathurst round winner topping Friday on the Gold Coast. 

Russell rushed to the top in the second of two, 25-minute practice sessions on Friday to end the day quickest by 0.02 seconds over Marcos Flack and defending Gold Coast winner, Bayley Hall.

His flying 1m11.0710s lap was the quickest ever by a Porsche GT3 Cup Car on the Surfers streets with more to come in qualifying tomorrow.

Russell edged out Flack by a tiny margin in what was a strong day for the Sonic Motor Racing team: his teammate Angelo Mouzouris second in the opening session earlier in the day.

Bayley Hall ended the day third as he looks to claim a third-straight Gold Coast round – something never done before on the demanding street circuit.

With Dale Wood fourth, Marcos Amand ended the day in fifth place – creeping up on outright pace after feeling his way through his first street circuit experience earlier in the opening session.

On combined practice times, Harri Jones was fifth outright on the basis of his practice one lap time that set the tone earlier in the day, with his nearest FP1 rivals Mouzouris and Dylan O’Keeffe in close company on the combined times at the end of the day.

Also featuring in the top-10 in the quicker, second practice session were Caleb Sumich, Clay Osborne, Glen Wood and Macro Giltrap, while after finishing third outright in the first session, O’Keeffe could only manage 13th in the second.

Matt Slavin topped the Pro-Am ranks in both sessions on Friday as the ARES / ASM driver looks to continue to eat away at the points margin held by leader Rodney Jane and closest pursuer, Matt Belford.

Slavin’s 1m12.92 best in the second session put him 15th outright and ahead of both Belford and Jane – who finished the session in reverse championship order.

As always the Gold Coast was its usual brutal self in the pair of sessions with not everyone coming through unscathed.

Oscar Targett was forced to sit out the opening session following an early brush with the wall, while after a strong opening session, Ange Mouzouris was forced out of practice two with damage to his right front corner following contact at turn one.

Teammate Rodney Jane was another to find drama in that session as he scraped the exit wall at turn two. Several cars, including Bayley Hall, scraped mirrors along walls throughout the combative 25-minute outing.

With the opening day complete, attention now turns to the battle for the TAG Heuer Pole Award on Saturday morning which will set the tone for the three races this weekend.

That session will be held at 0925am, prior to race one commencing at 1:55pm.

Qualifying and the race will be shown live on Fox Sports 506 and Kayo, with the race also broadcast live on the screens of Seven.