Practice (pictured in 2015) set the fastest practice lap time on Friday A total of four 40-minute practice sessions were held on 19 October, with the second and third sessions restricted to the international co-drivers. The first morning session and the fourth session held in the late afternoon were open to all drivers. Ten minutes in,
Taz Douglas prompted the session's first
stoppage as he struck the turn 2 apex kerb and damaged his
Holden Commodore VE2's left-hand side in a collision with the exit concrete wall.
David Reynolds removed his car's left-hand side
doors as a result of a sudden
oversteer putting him into a barrier leaving the same corner and necessitating a second stoppage. While the session passed without a major incident,
Lucas di Grassi and
Justin Wilson ventured onto the turn 11
escape road and
Jamie Campbell-Walter went straight into the
tyre barrier leaving the final
hairpin. During the session, more drivers ventured onto the track's escape roads, and three drivers had crashes.
Peter Dumbreck glanced the turn 14 exit barrier and
Boris Said lightly touched the tyre barrier with his right-front corner at the exit to turn 9 after a suspected
power steering failure. Said's teammate Kox made contact with the turn 14 wall and brought out the session's only red flag.
Garth Tander caused the session's sole stoppage when he locked a front wheel and broke his car's left-front
suspension over the two kerbs.
Jonathon Webb also broke his suspension at the same corner and abandoned his car at the side of the circuit two turns later. "What happens in the drivers' briefing is we all push for things but we don't always get what we are pushing for. There is a lot of outside influence in our sport from certain people who push for something else and shouldn't really be offering their opinion." Winterbottom stated. Courtney expressed his concern that the kerbing would cause tyres to delaminate that was observed in the 2011 event. The sensors were switched off before the first qualifying session on Friday night. Webb, Courtney, Caruso, d'Alberto, van Gisbergen and
Fabian Coulthard were the final five drivers who advanced to the top ten shootout. Two red flags were necessitated for debris on the track and the third was needed to retrieve Moffat's car which stopped at turn 11 with a
tailshaft failure. Tander ended his session early with a collision with the rear of
David Wall's vehicle. Coulthard, seventh, made contact with a wall. D'Alberto qualified eighth. Courtney in ninth had significant rear-brake locking and glanced the turn 11 barrier. Van Gisbergen in tenth lost time when an error put him onto the turn 11 escape road. Every car was started by its international co-driver. Behind the pair, Taylor had no space to negotiate past and hit the front wheel of Pagenaud's vehicle at more than . Taylor was turned onto his roof and barrel rolled several times before finishing upside down. The race was suspended for half an hour while the track was cleared of debris and the stricken vehicles removed. Webb and Lieb finished second and Winterbottom and Power took third.
Post-race Whincup said he ensured that he did not push on his worn tyres and declared his and Bourdais's happiness over the victory, "It was a crazy start to the race and I am sure it made for good television. It really threw us back in pit lane and we had to work out what to do. Our strategy had to change with the race being shortened. It turned into a one-stop race and everyone was massively on their toes. I didn't have to do much and just sat back and watched it all unfold." Winterbottom said finishing third was not good enough to help him in the title contest, "You've just got to try and keep winning each race and if you can keep winning it puts pressure on them. Third was a really good effort from the dramas we had ... that could be as good as a win if it all falls into place for you (but) deep down you've got to beat him week-in, week-out. Otherwise it's going to come down to
Homebush [final event] and the only way you can beat him is if he doesn't turn up." Tander was investigated for his contact with Reynolds that put the latter out of the event in the closing laps and he incurred a 25 championship points penalty from his season total after Tander admitted he was at fault to the stewards. He retained seventh in the points standings but was now 46 points behind sixth-placed Slade. Following the extensive amount of damage to the 3, 11 and 33 cars in the first two attempts to start the event, they were withdrawn from Race 23 as they could not be rebuilt in the Gold Coast. The race result left Whincup with an increased Drivers' Championship lead of 209 points. Lowndes retained second but Winterbottom now tied him with the same number of points (2,713 points). Davison maintained fourth place with 2,353 points and van Gisbergen completed the top five with 2,098 points. In the Teams' Championship, Triple Eight Race Engineering still led with 5,660 points and Ford Performance Racing kept second with 5,006 points. Stone Brothers Racing similarly retained third with 3,727 points. Holden Racing Team (3,640 points) and Brad Jones Racing (3,051 points) rounded out the top five.
Race 22 – Results ==Race 23 ==