Red Bull Racing's championship-chasing duo are confident they can find improvement in their cars to challenge in the V8 Supercars round in Townsville.
Ahead of Saturday's two 125km races, Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes both had reasons to be unhappy with their tropical practice day.
Whincup recovered to be fourth fastest late in the day while Lowndes stayed outside the top 10 in all three Friday sessions.
Stealing the limelight was Erebus Mercedes, recording their first 1-2 result in V8 Supercars - unfortunately one day before points were on offer.
Lee Holdsworth and Will Davison went toe for toe in the final stages with Holdsworth, who scored a maiden victory for the team in Wilton this year, edging his teammate by less than a tenth of a second.
Team owner Betty Klimenko embraced a slightly taken-aback Holdsworth, who finished in 1 minute 13.7019 seconds.
"I was thinking everyone's looking at me like I'm a w**ker, getting excited about a practice session," he said.
"It's exciting for our team when you hit little milestones like that.
"It means a lot to everyone involved ... it's a real confidence booster to the team."
Kiwi Scott McLaughlin was third, narrowly ahead of Whincup who said he would get better.
"We rolled out of the truck not as competitive as we would have liked today," the reigning champion said.
"Every time the car went on track, we were slightly better and we were at our best at the end of the third practice session but we still have a long way to go."
Winterbottom, leading the championship by 161 points, also failed to impress in practice.
Championship backmarker Robert Dahlgren left his impression - on the turn 11 wall.
The red flag was brought out following his crash, which he said was due to a change of brake pads.
"I had too much rear locking and, where I braked the session before, it was too deep ... with the rear locking, I couldn't save it," he told the V8 Supercars website.
Saturday's races take place at 2:15pm (AEST) and 4:50pm.
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