Clipsal 500 Supercars: SVG takes provisional pole by 0.0001s

The 20-minute session boiled down to a battle between reigning champion van Gisbergen and DJR Team Penske’s star signing Scott McLaughlin.

The Penske Ford driver had jumped to the top with 11 minutes to go with a 1m19.780s, and looked odds on to improve on that time with a second run right at the end, but fell around a tenth short.

At almost the same time van Gisbergen, who had sat third before the happy hour right at the end, jumped to the top with a 1m19.780s of his own, edging McLaughlin’s near identical time by 0.0001s.

“I went to the toilet before qualifying, maybe that was it!” said van Gisbergen.

“It’s not pole yet, but we’re in the Shootout. I’m feeling really good.”

Having been on the pace all day, Nissan driver Rick Kelly kept his good form going into qualifying with third, ahead of James Courtney in the HSV Racing Commodore, Chaz Mostert in the Prodrive Ford, and Fabian Coulthard in the Penske Ford.

Van Gisbergen’s teammate Jamie Whincup came from outside the Top 20 at the end to book a Shootout spot with seventh, ahead of Prodrive pair Mark Winterbottom and Cam Waters and Erebus driver David Reynolds.

Nick Percat was the unlucky man on the Top 10 bubble, finishing 11th, ahead of Brad Jones Racing teammate Tim Slade. Craig Lowndes also missed out on a Shootout berth, finishing 13th.

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore VF	8	1'19.7806			145.298
2	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG-X	7	1'19.7807	0.0001	0.0001	145.298
3	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	9	1'19.8607	0.0801	0.0800	145.152
4	22	James Courtney	Holden Commodore VF	6	1'19.8670	0.0864	0.0063	145.141
5	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG-X	9	1'19.8676	0.0870	0.0006	145.140
6	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Falcon FG-X	9	1'19.8908	0.1102	0.0232	145.098
7	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore VF	5	1'19.8969	0.1163	0.0061	145.086
8	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG-X	11	1'20.0565	0.2759	0.1596	144.797
9	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG-X	8	1'20.0566	0.2760	0.0001	144.797
10	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore VF	10	1'20.1050	0.3244	0.0484	144.710
11	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore VF	9	1'20.1235	0.3429	0.0185	144.676
12	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore VF	10	1'20.1747	0.3941	0.0512	144.584
13	888	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore VF	9	1'20.2137	0.4331	0.0390	144.513
14	23	Michael Caruso	Nissan Altima	10	1'20.2461	0.4655	0.0324	144.455
15	33	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore VF	10	1'20.2585	0.4779	0.0124	144.433
16	7	Todd Kelly	Nissan Altima	8	1'20.2618	0.4812	0.0033	144.427
17	19	Will Davison	Holden Commodore VF	9	1'20.2802	0.4996	0.0184	144.394
18	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore VF	9	1'20.3479	0.5673	0.0677	144.272
19	34	James Moffat	Holden Commodore VF	11	1'20.4186	0.6380	0.0707	144.145
20	18	Lee Holdsworth	Holden Commodore VF	10	1'20.4696	0.6890	0.0510	144.054
21	99	Dale Wood	Holden Commodore VF	10	1'20.6664	0.8858	0.1968	143.702
22	56	Jason Bright	Ford Falcon FG-X	9	1'20.8057	1.0251	0.1393	143.455
23	21	Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore VF	10	1'20.8376	1.0570	0.0319	143.398
24	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	10	1'21.1722	1.3916	0.3346	142.807
25	3	Taz Douglas	Holden Commodore VF	10	1'22.1247	2.3441	0.9525	141.151
26	62	Alex Rullo	Holden Commodore VF	10	1'23.0244	3.2438	0.8997	139.621