Darwin Supercars: McLaughlin storms to Saturday pole
Scott McLaughlin stormed to pole position for today's opening Supercars race in Darwin.
Scott McLaughlin, DJR Team Penske Ford
Supercars
The DJR Team Penske driver ran second-last in the Top 15 Shootout, by which point Jamie Whincup had already set a formidable benchmark with a 1m06.991s.
However, despite suffering from an arm cramp during his lap, McLaughlin was able to best Whincup's effort by just over a tenth of a second.
Q2 pacesetter Shane van Gisbergen was then unable to go close to McLaughlin's time, having come into the single-lap dash without a set of green tyres.
"It's just a little bit of a cramp on the inside, I'll just have a few more waters and I'll be right." McLaughlin said of his arm issue.
"Jamie did a great lap there. I thought if we could get a 6.8s we'd put a bit of pressure on Shane. He obviously used a couple of sets of tyres to get in the Shootout.
"We're in a good spot, I'm really happy."
Whincup finished the Shootout second, a gain of five spots compared to Q2, followed by Fabian Coulthard, Mark Winterbottom and Cam Waters.
Erebus pair Anton De Pasquale and David Reynolds qualified sixth and seventh, the latter running wide at the final corner on his lap, while James Courtney recovered nicely from his Practice 2 crash to qualify eighth.
Van Gisbergen slipped back to ninth ahead of Scott Pye, Todd Hazelwood, Nick Percat, Andre Heimgartner, Rick Kelly and Jack Le Brocq.
Having been quick in both practice sessions, qualifying was a disaster for Chaz Mostert thanks to a driveshaft failure in Q1. As a result he'll start the first 110-kilometre heat from 20th.
"I came on the straight to finish my last flying lap on that set of tyres and there was a lot of vibrations in the cabin," he said.
"When I plucked sixth at the start/finish line I got a box of neutrals."
Qualifying results:
Cla | Driver | Car | Time |
---|---|---|---|
1 |
Scott McLaughlin
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'06.858 |
2 |
Jamie Whincup
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'06.991 |
3 |
Fabian Coulthard
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'07.031 |
4 |
Mark Winterbottom
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.166 |
5 |
Cameron Waters
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'07.244 |
6 |
Anton De Pasquale
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.296 |
7 |
David Reynolds
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.381 |
8 |
James Courtney
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'07.459 |
9 |
Shane van Gisbergen
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.463 |
10 |
Scott Pye
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.480 |
11 |
Todd Hazelwood
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.555 |
12 |
Nick Percat
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.589 |
13 |
Andre Heimgartner
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'07.607 |
14 |
Rick Kelly
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'07.736 |
15 |
Jack Le Brocq
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'07.781 |
16 |
Lee Holdsworth
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'07.662 |
17 |
Alex Davison
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.861 |
18 |
Jake Kostecki
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.870 |
19 |
Chris Pither
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.933 |
20 |
Chaz Mostert
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.876 |
21 |
Bryce Fullwood
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.115 |
22 |
Macauley Jones
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.208 |
23 |
Garry Jacobson
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.230 |
24 |
Jack Smith
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.579 |
View full results |
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