Championship leader Jamie Whincup knows wet or dry, a battle for Supercars supremacy looms in New Zealand on Saturday.
The Holden ace found himself wedged between Ford pair Cameron Waters and Mark Winterbottom at the top of the timesheets following Friday's practice for the Auckland SuperSprint event at Pukekohe Park Raceway.
Sandown 500 winner Cam Waters was the fastest of the day at the 2.91km circuit, clocking a one minute and 02.5623 second lap.
Whincup was next with a 1:02.7037 but championship rivals Scott McLaughlin, Chaz Mostert and Shane Van Gisbergen were all close behind the Red Bull Holden Racing Team star.
Winterbottom (1:02.7097) came third on the timesheets but McLaughlin, Mostert and Van Gisbergen rounded out the top six.
A mere 189 points separates the five title chasers heading into this weekend's penultimate event, leaving little margin for error.
Rain is forecast for Saturday's action and after several drivers struggled to come to terms with the resurfaced Pukekohe track on Friday, Whincup is expecting another tight tussle.
"Those new sections are going to be pretty hectic in the wet, I'm predicting they'll be really slippery to be honest," Whincup said.
"Because it's so close, you've got to go hard. If you conserve you'll end up coming third or fourth so head down and go as quick as you can."
New Zealander McLaughlin, who was quickest in opening practice on Friday, was optimistic he'd find some extra pace before Saturday's qualifying run.
"The car's okay, it needs to be a little bit better," he said.
"I feel we've got a really strong race car, we just need to tune it up ... to qualify a bit further up."
McLaughlin's teammate Fabian Coulthard has more issues to overcome, a late lap lifting him from near the bottom of the timesheets to a mid-pack 14th.
Coulthard, who lies just 17 points off championship leader Whincup, knows he needs to improve to avoid being overrun in the title race.
"The car needs to be better, it needs to be faster," Coulthard said.
"We need to get stuck into it overnight before qualifying tomorrow."
Saturday's action begins with a 20-minute qualifying run from 12.25pm (1025 AEDT) before the 70-lap race starts at 4.10pm (1410 AEDT).
