Ford Performance Racing (FPR) has fired an early shot at their TeamVodafone rivals after dominating opening practice for the V8 Supercars at Surfers Paradise.

The pairing of Will Davison and Mika Salo posted the fastest lap time on Friday in the opening 40-minute practice session of the Gold Coast 600, with teammates Mark Winterbottom and Will Power third fastest.

Davison clocked a quickest time of one minute and 12.0639 seconds on the 2.96km street circuit with Holden’s Greg Ritter a surprising second in the session with a 1:12.4600.

Winterbottom, who trails TeamVodafone duo Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes in this year’s championship race, clocked a 1:12.5924 to ensure FPR made a quick start to the weekend.

Lowndes and co-driver Richard Lyons were fourth quickest while Whincup and his partner Sebastien Bourdais could only post the 11th best time in the session.

The second and third sessions of the day are solely reserved for the internationally-based co-drivers taking part in this weekend’s event before the entire field takes to the track for the fourth and final session.

The next session begins at 11.35am AEST.