Townsville Supercars: Reynolds pips Mostert to pole

Mostert looked to have grabbed pole with a 1m12.218s on his final run, particularly when early pacesetter Scott McLaughlin failed to improve.

But he was undone by a last-gasp effort from Reynolds, the Erebus driver snatching pole with a 1m12.106s right on the flag.

“I’m so happy, I’m so proud of everyone,” he said.

“The funny thing is I had no radio that last lap, I had no idea. I saw the lap time was pretty good when I crossed the line and thought ‘this is alright’.

“Then I got halfway round and I saw ‘pole position, David Reynolds’ [on the big screen] and I thought ‘that’s so cool, that’s amazing’.

“I’m just really proud of the boys because in Practice 3 I hit the fence and made them work a bit harder, so I’m repaying them.”

Despite missing out on pole, Mostert was far from disappointed with his lap.

“We’ll take a front-row start at the moment,” he said.

“This year has been super-tough for one-lap pace and I can say that is the best qualifying car I’ve had all year.

“A lot has changed for us this weekend, Friday running absolutely killed us, but we stuck to our guns.

“I’m just super-pumped for [engineer] Adam [De Borre]. He’s done a lot of hard work and deserves the pole because of how much he’s changed on the car.

“Hopefully it’s still a good race car.”

McLaughlin will start from third, marking just his fourth absence from the front row all season.

He'll be joined on the second row by 2018 title rival Shane van Gisbergen, while former housemates Will Davison and Jamie Whincup locked out the third row.

Lee Holdsworth qualified seventh, followed by Nissan's Andre Heimgartner and Tickford teammate Cam Waters.

Mark Winterbottom will start from 10th in his Team 18 Holden.

Fabian Coulthard was a surprise omission from the Top 10, the practice pacesetter set to start from 13th.

“I had a braking drama,” he said.

“Into Turn 1 I locked a right-front, had to come out of the brake, back into the brake and missed the apex on my first set of tyres.

“Then it wasn’t much better on my second set. It’s just the way it goes. We need a good strategy to get us back in the hunt.”