The majority of the primary drivers started the hour-long session, with a flurry of improvements at the top inside the first 10 minutes.
The early benchmark was a 2m07.665s from Brown, before Anton De Pasquale went slightly faster with a 2m07.373s.
Brown returned to the top very briefly with a 2m07-dead, only for Brodie Kostecki to immediately pull a full second clear of the field with a 2m06.072s.
That gap slowly narrowed as the session settled into a rhythm, the likes of De Pasquale and Scott Pye dipping into the 2m06s, before Brown went within three tenths of his teammate with a 2m07.344s.
Brown improved again right on the midway point, becoming the first driver into the fives with a 2m05.965s.
That time proved too quick for anybody to run down in the remaining half of the session, although Payne went very close, the Grove Racing driver falling just 0.007s short on his best lap.
Kostecki's early time was good enough for third, co-driver David Russell having done the majority of the running in the second half of the session.
Chaz Mostert jumped up to fourth on his final lap to ease ahead of David Reynolds, Pye and Sandown 500 winner Broc Feeney.
De Pasquale was shuffled back to eighth as the session wore on ahead of Andre Heimgartner and Craig Lowndes.
Shane van Gisbergen was just 15th fastest in a session that included a trip down the escape road at Hell Corner.
The Supercars action continues with a second one-hour practice session, exclusively for co-drivers, at 4:50pm local time.
