Sydney Supercars: Heimgartner tops wet qualifying
Andre Heimgartner topped a wet Supercars qualifying session at Sydney Motorsport Park while form man Anton De Pasquale missed the Top 10 Shootout.
Photo by: Mark Horsburgh, Edge Photographics
Drivers were greeted with extremely wet conditions at the Eastern Creek circuit, tyre pressures critical to getting a lap in times that were around 15 seconds slower than in the dry.
I was Kelly Grove Racing driver Heimgartner, a race winner in the wet earlier this season, that read the conditions best, a 1m45.082s leaving him 0.05s clear of renowned rain master Shane van Gisbergen.
The two Kiwis will run second last and last in the Top 10 Shootout that will determine pole later today.
"I love those sort of conditions, it's good fun," said Heimgartner.
"It doesn't mean too much, we've got the Top 10 Shootout to come. We'll wait and see but it's a good start.
"The car was comfortable. The tyre pressures were just right. Turn 1 is sketchy but apart from that it was all good."
Turn 1 did prove problematic for drivers, with both Todd Hazelwood and Jamie Whincup both ending up in the outside wall after high-speed excursions.
Remarkably both still made it through to the Shootout, Hazelwood third fastest and Whincup sixth.
Fabian Coulthard was the surprise of the session, putting his Team Sydney Holden into the Shootout with the fourth-best time.
"We've struggled there last few weeks and the car was a handful early on in the wet but it just got better and better and we got that lap in the end," he said.
Nick Percat, Tim Slade, Chaz Mosert, Cam Waters and David Reynolds will also run in the single-lap dash for pole.
It was a tough session for a number of in-form drivers, including the two Erebus rookies, Will Brown 16th fastest and Brodie Kostecki 19th.
De Pasquale, who's been the form man over a lap at SMP in recent weeks, also missed the Shootout and will start 17th.
"We didn't get a great run [early in the session], didn't have much pace," he said. "Then we changed tyres and it was all coming good and I made an error on that last lap."
Cla | # | Driver | Car | Time | Gap | Interval |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 7 |
Andre Heimgartner
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'45.082 | ||
2 | 97 |
Shane van Gisbergen
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'45.138 | 0.055 | 0.055 |
3 | 14 |
Todd Hazelwood
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'45.155 | 0.073 | 0.017 |
4 | 19 |
Fabian Coulthard
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'45.396 | 0.314 | 0.241 |
5 | 8 |
Nick Percat
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'45.416 | 0.334 | 0.019 |
6 | 3 |
Tim Slade
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'45.469 | 0.387 | 0.053 |
7 | 88 |
Jamie Whincup
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'45.573 | 0.491 | 0.104 |
8 | 25 |
Chaz Mostert
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'45.589 | 0.506 | 0.015 |
9 | 6 |
Cameron Waters
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'45.859 | 0.777 | 0.270 |
10 | 26 |
David Reynolds
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'45.882 | 0.800 | 0.023 |
11 | 17 |
Will Davison
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'45.974 | 0.892 | 0.092 |
12 | 96 |
Macauley Jones
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'46.112 | 1.029 | 0.137 |
13 | 44 |
James Courtney
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'46.140 | 1.058 | 0.028 |
14 | 5 |
Jack Le Brocq
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'46.376 | 1.294 | 0.235 |
15 | 20 |
Scott Pye
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'46.443 | 1.361 | 0.067 |
16 | 9 |
Will Brown
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'46.461 | 1.379 | 0.017 |
17 | 11 |
Anton De Pasquale
|
Ford Mustang GT | 1'46.565 | 1.483 | 0.104 |
18 | 18 |
Mark Winterbottom
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'46.591 | 1.509 | 0.026 |
19 | 99 |
Brodie Kostecki
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'46.923 | 1.841 | 0.332 |
20 | 2 |
Bryce Fullwood
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'47.109 | 2.027 | 0.185 |
21 | 34 |
Jake Kostecki
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'47.432 | 2.350 | 0.322 |
22 | 35 |
Zane Goddard
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'47.537 | 2.455 | 0.105 |
23 | 22 |
Garry Jacobson
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'48.381 | 3.299 | 0.844 |
24 | 4 |
Jack Smith
|
Holden Commodore ZB | 1'56.001 | 10.919 | 7.620 |
View full results |
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