Bird set a time of 1m13.631s with just five minutes remaining in the second practice on Saturday morning, heading a closely-contested contest that saw 18 of the 22 drivers finish within a second of each other.
The laptimes tumbled as the track rubbered in during the 30-minute session, with Bird’s teammate Mitch Evans the first to beat the FP1 benchmark 10 minutes into the running with a 1m14.926s.
