Sydney Supercars: McLaughlin takes night race pole
Scott McLaughlin grabbed pole for tonight's first Sydney Motorsport Park race with a record-breaking Shootout lap.
Photo by: Supercars
The DJR Team Penske driver opted to roll the dice on getting through Q1 and Q2 without using the soft compound Dunlop, which meant he was just 11th fastest heading into the Top 15 Shootout.
However once on a set of green softs he was remarkably quick, McLaughlin breaking his own lap record – set just three weeks ago – to grab pole with a 1m27.742s.
"You always feel like this is happy hour, you can go really fast in these conditions," he said.
"The car felt really good, I'm really comfortable with it on soft tyres. We need to make it a little bit better on the hard [tyres], but overall I'm really happy with it."
Shane van Gisbergen made a similar gain, making up eight spots compared to this Q2 effort. However he fell two-tenths short of fierce rival McLaughlin.
Cam Waters was the biggest improver in the Shootout, the Tickford driver going from 15th to third, while Jamie Whincup made up 10 spots on his way to fourth.
Lee Holdsworth qualified fifth followed by provisional pole-sitter Fabian Coulthard, who actually dropped five spots thanks to a Q2 run on his set of softs.
Mark Winterbottom effectively broke even, ending the Shootout in seventh, ahead of Anton De Pasquale, Macauley Jones, Bryce Fullwood, Nick Percat and David Reynolds.
Chaz Mostert was the best of the drivers to run the hard compound in the Shootout, the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver qualifying 13th, followed by Chris Pither and Todd Hazelwood.
Qualifying results:
Cla | Driver | Car | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Scott McLaughlin
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'27.742 | |
2 |
Shane van Gisbergen
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'28.018 | 0.275 |
3 |
Cameron Waters
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'28.059 | 0.316 |
4 |
Jamie Whincup
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'28.137 | 0.394 |
5 |
Lee Holdsworth
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'28.160 | 0.417 |
6 |
Fabian Coulthard
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'28.385 | 0.643 |
7 |
Mark Winterbottom
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'28.513 | 0.770 |
8 |
Anton De Pasquale
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'28.790 | 1.047 |
9 |
Macauley Jones
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'28.802 | 1.059 |
10 |
Bryce Fullwood
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'28.846 | 1.103 |
11 |
Nick Percat
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'29.010 | 1.267 |
12 |
David Reynolds
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'29.038 | 1.295 |
13 |
Chaz Mostert
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'29.488 | 1.745 |
14 |
Chris Pither
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'30.453 | 2.711 |
15 |
Todd Hazelwood
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'30.879 | 3.136 |
16 |
Scott Pye
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'29.891 | 2.149 |
17 |
James Courtney
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'30.020 | 2.277 |
18 |
Jack Le Brocq
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'30.205 | 2.462 |
19 |
Garry Jacobson
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'30.735 | 2.993 |
20 |
Andre Heimgartner
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'30.739 | 2.997 |
21 |
Rick Kelly
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'30.552 | 2.810 |
22 |
Alex Davison
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'30.731 | 2.988 |
23 |
Jack Smith
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'31.339 | 3.596 |
24 |
Zane Goddard
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'31.558 | 3.815 |
View full results |
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