Darwin V8s: Van Gisbergen tops Shootout to take pole

The baking hot conditions meant that the best of the running came earlier in the Shootout, while the front-runners from qualifying, who ran at the end of the Shootout, struggled after sitting on the pit apron for so long.

That played right into van Gisbergen’s hands, the Kiwi turning seventh in qualifying into a second pole position for the weekend with a 1m06.679s – more than six tenths slower than the fastest time from the session earlier today.

“Awesome. Hopefully today there are no mistakes, that’s the motto,” said van Gisbergen. “We just kept it smooth; we’ve just got to convert today.”

Todd Kelly made even more ground, going from 10th to second after running first in the Shootout.

“I’m really happy about that,” said the Nissan driver.

“We used every set of tyres we had just to get into the Shootout, so they were roaded tyres. The car was really tuned perfectly for the grip level we had, I really enjoyed driving it.”

Mark Winterbottom was third fastest, having run third in the Shootout, ahead of Tim Slade, who did well given that he ran fourth from the end.

Rick Kelly and Craig Lowndes were fifth and sixth respectively, after running second last and last in the Shootout.

Scott McLaughlin will start today’s race seventh, with Chaz Mostert down in P8 after struggling to get his Prodrive Ford turned in at the first corner.

It was the same story for Michael Caruso, a wide line through Turn 1 leaving him down in ninth, while Jamie Whincup lost a lot of time with a big slide in the final sector and will start 10th.