The first two-driver race of the Supercars season – and the first Sandown 500 since 2019 – kicked off with a half-hour practice at the suburban Melbourne circuit.
It was a somewhat cagey session as teams cycled through their primary and co-drivers.
As a result there was no traditional happy hour at the end of the session, with the benchmark time coming after 13 minutes.
That 1mm09.296s was set by Feeney in the #88 Red Bull Camaro that he will share with seven-time Supercars champion Whincup.
Series leader Brodie Kostecki ended up second, a lap that left him just 0.007s short of Feeney coming five minutes from the end.
"It was a pretty interesting session," said Kostecki.
"We haven't been here since 2019 for the Sandown 500 and with these new cars as well; boy I was blown away by how long these rear tyres are lasting. I think they were lasting about one corner. I'm going to have to work on my throttle foot throughout the race.
"So far it was a good session. We'll tweak on it a little bit and hopefully get bit a little bit better."
That demoted the James Golding/Dylan O'Keeffe car to third, while early pacesetter Macauley Jones slipped back to fourth.
Cam Waters/James Moffat was the best-placed Ford entry courtesy of a Waters lap ahead of a quartet of Camaros – Shane van Gisbergen, Will Brown, Tim Slade and Mark Winterbottom.
Matt Payne was 10th fastest in the Grove Ford that he will share with Porsche ace Kevin Estre, the only non-antipodean driver in the Sandown field.
It was a quiet start for Walkinshaw Andretti United with its cars ending up 20th (Nick Percat/Fabian Coulthard) and 21st (Chaz Mostert/Lee Holdsworth).
Another big name team to miss the top 10 was Dick Johnson Racing, with Will and Alex Davison 15th fastest and Anton de Pasquale and Tony D'Alberto down in 25th.
The best of the two wildcards in the field was Craig Lowndes and Zane Goddard in 23rd.
The day continues with a co-drivers-only practice at 12:40pm local time.
