Townsville Supercars: Waters scores provisional pole

It was van Gisbergen that led the way after the early runs courtesy of a 1m13.209s on his first set of green tyres.

The Kiwi then opted to sit out the rest of the session to save rubber, confident that his time was good enough to get into the Shootout.

That confidence was well-placed, however the time wasn't quite good enough for provisional pole thanks to a 1m13.086s from Waters on a second green tyre run.

Still, van Gisbergen was satisfied with his call to sit out the end of the session to give himself some strategic freedom for the Shootout.

"Only running one set of tyres is a good thing," he said.

"I feel like we're in a good place but I need to tidy up some errors. I can't switch my tyres on so [the Shootout] is going to be pretty tough. Whether we re-use the fronts so they come up easier or run four new ones... I don't know.

"Hopefully we can switch the right front on, because I get to Turn 5 and it's stone cold.

Andre Heimgartner was third fastest after running two sets of tyres, while Will Davison followed van Gisbergen's lead and only used one set as he qualified fourth.

Jack Le Brocq was a late improver to end up fifth followed by Anton De Pasquale, Chaz Mostert, Broc Feeney, Scott Pye and Tim Slade.

David Reynolds ended up on the bubble of the Shootout, missing a spot in the single-lap dash by just 0.05s.

Both Erebus cars missed the Shootout, Brodie Kostecki just 15th and Will Brown 18th.

Nick Percat's difficult run of qualifying form continued, the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver set to start this afternoon's opening race from 20th.

Lee Holdsworth was the biggest surprise, though, the Grove Racing driver just 24th fastest.

Townsville 500 qualifying results

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Interval
1	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	1'13.0869
2	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	1'13.2093	0.1224	0.1224
3	8	Andre Heimgartner	Holden Commodore ZB	1'13.3026	0.2157	0.0933
4	17	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	1'13.3466	0.2597	0.0440
5	34	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	1'13.4551	0.3682	0.1085
6	11	Anton De Pasquale	Ford Mustang GT	1'13.5034	0.4165	0.0483
7	25	Chaz Mostert	Holden Commodore ZB	1'13.5160	0.4291	0.0126
8	88	Broc Feeney	Holden Commodore ZB	1'13.5325	0.4456	0.0165
9	20	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	1'13.6047	0.5178	0.0722
10	3	Tim Slade	Ford Mustang GT	1'13.6176	0.5307	0.0129
11	26	David Reynolds	Ford Mustang GT	1'13.6618	0.5749	0.0442
12	55	Thomas Randle	Ford Mustang GT	1'13.6891	0.6022	0.0273
13	18	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	1'13.7711	0.6842	0.0820
14	56	Jake Kostecki	Ford Mustang GT	1'13.7860	0.6991	0.0149
15	99	Brodie Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	1'13.8137	0.7268	0.0277
16	14	Bryce Fullwood	Holden Commodore ZB	1'13.8649	0.7780	0.0512
17	96	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	1'13.9084	0.8215	0.0435
18	9	Will Brown	Holden Commodore ZB	1'13.9093	0.8224	0.0009
19	5	James Courtney	Ford Mustang GT	1'13.9369	0.8500	0.0276
20	2	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	1'13.9552	0.8683	0.0183
21	31	James Golding	Holden Commodore ZB	1'13.9744	0.8875	0.0192
22	35	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	1'13.9747	0.8878	0.0003
23	4	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	1'14.0509	0.9640	0.0762
24	10	Lee Holdsworth	Ford Mustang GT	1'14.0907	1.0038	0.0398
25	22	Chris Pither	Holden Commodore ZB	1'14.1365	1.0496	0.0458
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