Ford is comin’ round the Mountain fast. Very fast.

Defending Bathurst champion Mark Winterbottom set a new V8 Supercars practice record at Mount Panorama in the final session before qualifying on Friday.

The Ford Performance Racing driver became the first to lap Australia’s most famous track in less than two minutes, six seconds.

His time of 2:05.9011 shaved nearly half-a-second off the mark set by FPR stablemate David Reynolds in Thursday’s last practice session.

“It’s pretty good, but I think we can go quicker than that,” team boss Tim Edwards said.

“We’re determined to be back-to-back champions here, and having all our cars as competitive as they are, we’re certainly in a good position.”

Reynolds bettered his own time on Friday, but was outpaced by Volvo sensation Scott McLaughlin, who was second quickest in the session with a 2:06.1491.

Holden rival and series leader Jamie Whincup was a close third, ahead of FPR’s Reynolds and Chaz Mostert.

If practice is anything to go by, Greg Murphy’s famous Lap of the Gods will be smashed during qualifying on Friday.

Murphy monstered the field in the 2003 Top 10 shootout to set the qualifying record and it hasn’t been bettered since.

The four-time Bathurst winner – who is the co-driver for Holden Racing Team’s James Courtney – said Winterbottom’s lap was good, but expected more from him later in the day.

“If he can do that now in qualifying when you’re tightening up your belts a bit, he could go faster,” Murphy said, before joking: “He’s got to beat everyone by a second to make it special though.”

Qualifying begins at 3pm (AEDT).