Sandown Supercars: Mostert beats Waters to pole

After cruising through the first two segments of qualifying, Mostert and Waters faced off in a fierce battle for pole in Q3.

It was Waters that drew first blood with a 1m08.130s on his first run, before Mostert pieced together a two-lap run in the 1m07s, the best a 1m07.630s.

Waters did his best to respond on his final run but fell just 0.04s short.

"I can't believe it," said Mostert.

"We were struggling in practice with the balance of the car, but credit to [engineer] Adam [Deborre] and the whole crew at Walkinshaw Andretti United, we worked really hard. The guys haven't stopped, they haven't had a lunch break. It's a big reward for the team."

Jamie Whincup led the way for Triple Eight in third place, 0.15s behind Mostert, while Mark Winterbottom kept his strong start to the weekend going with fourth on the grid.

Jack Le Brocq was impressive in his Tickford Mustang, edging Anton De Pasquale and Andre Heimgartner for fifth.

Will Davison was eighth quickest for Dick Johnson Racing, while Erebus got both cars into Q3, Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown qualifying ninth and 10th.

A number of big names didn't feature in the final segment if qualifying, the biggest shock points leader Shane van Gisbergen. Despite nursing a broken collarbone the Kiwi comfortably ran in the Top 10 in practice, only to slump to 17th in qualifying.

"I just didn't drive well enough and didn't get the tyres phased good enough," said van Gisbergen. "It was only a tenth to get in and we didn't quite make it."

James Courtney failed to convert his promising practice pace, the Tickford driver left on the bubble in 11th, while the Nick Percat (14th), David Reynolds (16th) and Tim Slade (19th) were among those bumped out of Q2.

One of the surprises of the session was Bryce Fullwood, the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver knocked out of Q1 and left on the back row of the grid.

He explained that his best lap was ruined by a lock-up, while the resulting flat spot left him powerless to improve on the second lap of the run.

"I was on a pretty reasonably lap there and I locked the left-front really bad into Dandenong," he said.

"I had a severe flat spot, but I knew I had to press on. I was a bit scared the tyre was going to explode down he back straight, but I knew I had to put some form of lap in. I just couldn't make it happen."

Jack Smith, meanwhile, will start the race from dead last, his qualifying campaign ending in the gravel on his first lap in Q1. The subsequent red flag meant he couldn't take part in the rest of the session.

"I just pinched a wheel, there's a little kerb there on the left hand side, nicked it and I knew that was going to be that," he explained.

"It was an unrecoverable lock-up. I tried to keep it going in the gravel but it's a bit of an awkward gravel trap and I was never going to get out. It's my fault."

Qualifying results:

Pos	#	driver	car	time	gap	int
1	25	Chaz Mostert	Holden Commodore ZB	1'07.6303
2	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	1'07.6752	0.0449	0.0449
3	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	1'07.7883	0.1580	0.1131
4	18	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	1'07.8552	0.2249	0.0669
5	5	Jack Le Brocq	Ford Mustang GT	1'07.9646	0.3343	0.1094
6	11	Anton de Pasquale	Ford Mustang GT	1'08.0366	0.4063	0.0720
7	7	Andre Heimgartner	Ford Mustang GT	1'08.1988	0.5685	0.1622
8	17	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	1'08.2035	0.5732	0.0047
9	99	Brodie Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.2437	0.6134	0.0402
10	9	Will Brown	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.5145	0.8842	0.2708
11	44	James Courtney	Ford Mustang GT	1'08.2183	0.5880
12	34	Jake Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.2205	0.5902	0.0022
13	96	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.2214	0.5911	0.0009
14	8	Nicholas Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.2231	0.5928	0.0017
15	14	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.2242	0.5939	0.0011
16	26	David Reynolds	Ford Mustang GT	1'08.2796	0.6493	0.0554
17	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.2844	0.6541	0.0048
18	20	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.3087	0.6784	0.0243
19	3	Timothy Slade	Ford Mustang GT	1'08.3983	0.7680	0.0896
20	19	Fabian Coulthard	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.8110	1.1807	0.4127
21	35	Zane Goddard	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.7650	1.1347
22	22	Garry Jacobson	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.7861	1.1558	0.0211
23	2	Bryce Fullwood	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.9783	1.3480	0.1922
24	4	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB