Motorsport: Fabian Coulthard sets lap record at Bathurst

Fabian Coulthard on the way to a lap record during practice yesterday at Mt Panorama. Picture / Edge Photographics

Coulthard beats his own Mt Panorama mark on first day of Bathurst practice.

Holden's Fabian Coulthard yesterday broke his own lap record in a blistering final practice session at the Bathurst 1000.

Flying Kiwi Coulthard clocked a remarkable 2m 05.47s - eclipsing his mark set barely 12 months ago of 2m 05.60s.

Coulthard was one of the few people at Mt Panorama not getting too carried away.

"You get faster and faster through qualifying," he said. "I wouldn't be surprised if I saw a quicker time."

Asked if anyone could crack the 2m 04s barrier, Coulthard warned: "If there is a 2m 04s in it, I am going to try and do it."

Coulthard feared his record set last year would be broken yesterday - little did he know it would be by himself.

Defending champion Chaz Mostert of Ford appeared the man to beat after his opening 2m 06.32s effort - the fastest set in an opening practice session at Mt Panorama.

Yet Mostert didn't finish within the day's top three.

Mostert's teammate Mark Winterbottom (2m 05.57s) was second fastest in the third practice blitz ahead of fellow Ford driver David Reynolds (2m 05.73s).

"The track was ultra fast today, you just had to look at the first session," Coulthard said. "I was sweating a little bit, I was thinking my record was going to go."

Multiple records fell on the mountain's resurfaced track last year with Coulthard and Mostert (2m 07.49s) eventually setting the qualifying and race lap times to beat respectively.

Six-time V8 series champion Jamie Whincup had tried to hose down talk of lap records being set this year despite a new gearing set-up being used at Bathurst that will allow drivers to shatter the 300km/h barrier for the first time. Someone forgot to tell the rest of the field.