Gold Coast 600: Huge crash for McLaughlin in qualifying

The Penske Ford driver was on his final run when he clipped an inside wall at the first chicane, which fired him to the outside and tipped his Mustang on its side.

He was able to climb from the car under his own steam, and is currently being assessed by medical staff.

However he won't take any further part in today's action, which means he'll have to wait until at least Sandown to wrap up the 2019 title.

“It’s a pretty bad incident, but fortunately Scotty is alright so he could jump out of the car, that’s the main thing,” said co-driver Alex Premat.

“It’s bad ending the day like this, but it’s motor racing. He did the best at what he could do, we didn’t see what happened because we didn’t have so much onboard.

“It’s very unfortunate, but all that matters is Scotty is out of the car.

“We need to see when the car is back here what we can do, how bad it is, but the whole team will be making sure everything is back together, either today or at Sandown.”

McLaughlin actually finished the session fastest, but was demoted to second after losing his fastest time for causing a red flag.

That elevated Shane van Gisbergen, who rushed to McLaughlin's aid after the crash, to top spot, the Red Bull Holden driver set to run last in the Top 10 Shootout later this morning.

Jamie Whincup, Scott Pye, Cam Waters, Will Davison, Lee Holdsworth, James Courtney, David Reynolds and Anton De Pasquale are all guaranteed a spot in the single-lap dash for pole.

Qualifying results:

Cla	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	Shane van Gisbergen Garth Tander	Holden Commodore ZB	01'10.328
2	Scott McLaughlin Alexandre Prémat	Ford Mustang GT	01'10.367	00.038
3	Jamie Whincup Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore ZB	01'10.407	00.078
4	Scott Pye Warren Luff	Holden Commodore ZB	01'10.517	00.188
5	Cameron Waters Michael Caruso	Ford Mustang GT	01'10.518	00.190
6	Will Davison Alex Davison	Ford Mustang GT	01'10.557	00.229
7	Lee Holdsworth Thomas Randle	Ford Mustang GT	01'10.569	00.241
8	James Courtney Jack Perkins	Holden Commodore ZB	01'10.600	00.272
9	David Reynolds Luke Youlden	Holden Commodore ZB	01'10.616	00.287
10	Anton De Pasquale Will Brown	Holden Commodore ZB	01'10.743	00.415
11	Tim Slade Ash Walsh	Holden Commodore ZB	01'10.806	00.478
12	Mark Winterbottom Steven Richards	Holden Commodore ZB	01'10.812	00.483
13	Rick Kelly Dale Wood	Nissan Altima	01'10.826	00.498
14	Todd Hazelwood Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	01'10.836	00.508
15	Andre Heimgartner Bryce Fullwood	Nissan Altima	01'10.891	00.563
16	Fabian Coulthard Tony D'Alberto	Ford Mustang GT	01'10.986	00.658
17	Nick Percat Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore ZB	01'11.153	00.824
18	Brodie Kostecki Jake Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	01'11.244	00.915
19	Garry Jacobson Dean Fiore	Nissan Altima	01'11.387	01.058
20	James Golding Richard Muscat	Holden Commodore ZB	01'11.459	01.131
21	Macauley Jones Dean Canto	Holden Commodore ZB	01'11.481	01.152
22	Jack Le Brocq Jonathon Webb	Holden Commodore ZB	01'11.652	01.323
23	Simona de Silvestro Alex Rullo	Nissan Altima	01'12.055	01.726
24	Richie Stanaway Chris Pither	Holden Commodore ZB	01'13.447	03.119
View full results