[1] DJR Team Penske drivers Scott McLaughlin and Alexandre Prémat won the race from pole position, marking their first Bathurst 1000 win.

The Triple Eight Race Engineering pair of Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander finished second, with Walkinshaw Andretti United's James Courtney and Jack Perkins completing the podium in third.

A third wildcard from Team Kiwi Racing, who last appeared in 2008, was also announced, featuring Chris van der Drift and Jaxon Evans as drivers – however this failed to materialise.

As well as doing damage to the rear bumper and chassis rail, the impact bizarrely popped the rivets out of the roof, which subsequently folded back on the car as the Tim Blanchard Racing driver stopped at Reid Park.

Twenty minutes into the session, the Mountain claimed its first major scalp with Luke Youlden hitting the wall at Sulman Park and ripping the front-right suspension out of the car, resigning it to the garage for the rest of the day.

Jack Smith had a baptism of fire, brushing the tyre wall at Griffin's Bend in the Matt Stone Racing entry fifteen minutes in.

James Moffat overtook DJR Team Penske's Alexandre Prémat in the dying seconds to set the fastest time in the GT Mustang.

[11] Thursday's running ended with an incident-free third session, as championship leader McLaughlin broke his own Top Ten Shootout record by a tenth of a second on the first day of practice.

Garth Tander in Shane van Gisbergen's Triple Eight Race Engineering Commodore also ran wide at the first corner, nearly rejoining into the path of Moffat.

[14] The final practice session before qualifying saw another big-name driver in strife, with Whincup crashing at the Esses in an attempt to avoid the already stranded Richie Stanaway.

Van Gisbergen finished the session third ahead of Will Davison, with both Brad Jones Racing entries of Tim Slade and Nick Percat also making the ten.

The session stayed green throughout, however late in the piece James Hinchcliffe lost the rear of his Walkinshaw Andretti United Commodore on the exit of the Cutting and dragged the right-rear corner along the wall.

The teams' Commodore ZB was towed back to the pits where it was discovered Kostecki's helmet fan was blowing dry ice from the drivers' cool box into his face and causing carbon monoxide poisoning.

[19] McLaughlin got the jump on Mostert heading into Hell Corner on the opening lap, with Michael Caruso slipping past his Tickford team-mate into second.

As the field climbed the mountain for the first time, Tim Slade found himself on the wrong end of a mid-field battle with Scott Pye – a slight bump at Quarry Corner (Turn 5) sending the Brad Jones Racing Commodore into the outside wall and bringing out the safety car.

[20] A safety car was deployed on Lap 135 in response to the stricken Commodore of Hinchcliffe and Rossi, which caused Coulthard, who was third at the time, to dramatically slow down the rest of the field.