Ipswich Supercars: McLaughlin takes 100th team pole

The series leader faced stiff opposition from Whincup in both segments of qualifying, with just 0.07s separating the pair in McLaughlin's favour in Q2.

McLaughlin then opted to go early in Q3, setting a formidable benchmark of 1m08.651s on his first run.

Whincup didn't appear until much later in the session, his green tyre run putting him just shy of a tenth short of McLaughlin's time.

By that stage McLaughlin was already back on track for a final run of his own, narrowly improving to a 1m08.636s.

The pole is McLaughlin's 12th of the season, and the 100th in the history of Dick Johnson Racing/DJR Team Penske.

"It's awesome. I'm so proud for everyone," said McLaughlin of the milestone. "The first one was in car #17 and the 100th one is in car #17 as well.

Speaking about the session itself, McLaughlin added: "I knew that [Whincup] was pretty close, but we're in a pretty comfortable window with our race set-up so that we can go into the race and look after the tyres as well."

Whincup, who was just 18th in practice this morning, added that he is happy to end up second.

"We weren't that happy with the car in P3, but [engineer David] Cauchi made a really good tune before qualifying and the car was much better," he said.

"We owe it to everyone who's paid $50 to get in the gate today to get the start and then try and make a race of it. We'll proper race the #17 as hard as we possibly can.

"You've got be a little bit careful you don't expose yourself to the rest, but we're not here to run second. We'll give it a red hot go."

Tickford pair Will Davison and Lee Holdsworth locked out the second row, with Shane van Gisbergen and Chaz Mostert set to start from fifth and sixth respectively.

Anton De Pasquale edged teammate David Reynolds for eighth, while Fabian Coulthard ended up half a second off his teammate McLaughlin down in ninth.

Cam Waters was the only driver to take part in all three portions of qualifying, the Tickford driver set to start from 10th.

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time
1	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Mustang GT	1'08.6369
2	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.7480
3	23	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	1'08.7513
4	5	Lee Holdsworth	Ford Mustang GT	1'08.9368
5	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.9586
6	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Mustang GT	1'08.9686
7	99	Anton De Pasquale	Holden Commodore ZB	1'09.0124
8	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore ZB	1'09.0172
9	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Mustang GT	1'09.1667
10	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	1'09.1812
11	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	1'09.2465
12	35	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	1'09.3280
13	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore ZB	1'09.4075
14	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	1'09.4829
15	7	Andre Heimgartner	Nissan Altima	1'09.3670
16	18	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	1'09.3925
17	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	1'09.4319
18	22	James Courtney	Holden Commodore ZB	1'09.4869
19	3	Garry Jacobson	Nissan Altima	1'09.5039
20	34	James Golding	Holden Commodore ZB	1'09.5115
21	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	1'09.5982
22	33	Michael Caruso	Holden Commodore ZB	1'09.6237
23	21	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	1'09.6921
24	19	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	1'09.8080