Barbagallo V8s: Mostert pips Lowndes for Sunday pole

Mostert was sitting in P6 ahead of the crucial final run at the back end of the 20-minute session, but found three-tenths on his last lap to bag pole with a 55.053s – just 0.06s clear of Lowndes.

“It’s awesome to get this one,” said Mostert. “We’ve been struggling the last couple of rounds. Hopefully we can do it from the front row.”

Mark Winterbottom was third fastest, improving on his final run like Mostert and Lowndes, while the star of qualifying was Super Black Racing driver Chris Pither, who was fastest heading into the final runs and qualified fourth despite not improving at the end.

“I’m absolutely rapt for the whole Super Black Racing team,” said the Kiwi.

“The car has been bang on since we rolled out of the truck. Over the course of the last couple of day we’ve just been building confidence, yesterday it was a good feeling to get that Top 10 under the belt.

“It wasn’t a great start to the year, but I knew as a team we were capable of it.”

Fabian Coulthard was fifth fastest in the DJR Team Penske Falcon, ahead of Shane van Gisbergen, who failed to improve on his last run.

Rick Kelly and Jamie Whincup were seventh and eighth, ahead of Scott McLaughlin and Garth Tander.