Gold Coast 600: Huge crash for McLaughlin in qualifying
Scott McLaughlin suffered a spectacular crash during qualifying for Sunday's Supercars race on the Gold Coast.
The Penske Ford driver was on his final run when he clipped an inside wall at the first chicane, which fired him to the outside and tipped his Mustang on its side.
He was able to climb from the car under his own steam, and is currently being assessed by medical staff.
However he won't take any further part in today's action, which means he'll have to wait until at least Sandown to wrap up the 2019 title.
“It’s a pretty bad incident, but fortunately Scotty is alright so he could jump out of the car, that’s the main thing,” said co-driver Alex Premat.
“It’s bad ending the day like this, but it’s motor racing. He did the best at what he could do, we didn’t see what happened because we didn’t have so much onboard.
“It’s very unfortunate, but all that matters is Scotty is out of the car.
“We need to see when the car is back here what we can do, how bad it is, but the whole team will be making sure everything is back together, either today or at Sandown.”
McLaughlin actually finished the session fastest, but was demoted to second after losing his fastest time for causing a red flag.
That elevated Shane van Gisbergen, who rushed to McLaughlin's aid after the crash, to top spot, the Red Bull Holden driver set to run last in the Top 10 Shootout later this morning.
Jamie Whincup, Scott Pye, Cam Waters, Will Davison, Lee Holdsworth, James Courtney, David Reynolds and Anton De Pasquale are all guaranteed a spot in the single-lap dash for pole.
Qualifying results:
| Cla | Driver | Car | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Shane van Gisbergen  Garth Tander | Holden Commodore ZB | 01'10.328 | |
| 2 | Scott McLaughlin  Alexandre Prémat | Ford Mustang GT | 01'10.367 | 00.038 |
| 3 | Jamie Whincup Craig Lowndes | Holden Commodore ZB | 01'10.407 | 00.078 |
| 4 | Scott Pye Warren Luff | Holden Commodore ZB | 01'10.517 | 00.188 |
| 5 | Cameron Waters Michael Caruso | Ford Mustang GT | 01'10.518 | 00.190 |
| 6 | Will Davison Alex Davison | Ford Mustang GT | 01'10.557 | 00.229 |
| 7 | Lee Holdsworth Thomas Randle | Ford Mustang GT | 01'10.569 | 00.241 |
| 8 | James Courtney Jack Perkins | Holden Commodore ZB | 01'10.600 | 00.272 |
| 9 | David Reynolds Luke Youlden | Holden Commodore ZB | 01'10.616 | 00.287 |
| 10 | Anton De Pasquale Will Brown | Holden Commodore ZB | 01'10.743 | 00.415 |
| 11 | Tim Slade Ash Walsh | Holden Commodore ZB | 01'10.806 | 00.478 |
| 12 | Mark Winterbottom Steven Richards | Holden Commodore ZB | 01'10.812 | 00.483 |
| 13 | Rick Kelly Dale Wood | Nissan Altima | 01'10.826 | 00.498 |
| 14 | Todd Hazelwood  Jack Smith | Holden Commodore ZB | 01'10.836 | 00.508 |
| 15 | Andre Heimgartner Bryce Fullwood | Nissan Altima | 01'10.891 | 00.563 |
| 16 | Fabian Coulthard Tony D'Alberto | Ford Mustang GT | 01'10.986 | 00.658 |
| 17 | Nick Percat Tim Blanchard | Holden Commodore ZB | 01'11.153 | 00.824 |
| 18 | Brodie Kostecki Jake Kostecki | Holden Commodore ZB | 01'11.244 | 00.915 |
| 19 | Garry Jacobson Dean Fiore | Nissan Altima | 01'11.387 | 01.058 |
| 20 | James Golding Richard Muscat | Holden Commodore ZB | 01'11.459 | 01.131 |
| 21 | Macauley Jones Dean Canto | Holden Commodore ZB | 01'11.481 | 01.152 |
| 22 | Jack Le Brocq Jonathon Webb | Holden Commodore ZB | 01'11.652 | 01.323 |
| 23 |  Simona de Silvestro Alex Rullo | Nissan Altima | 01'12.055 | 01.726 |
| 24 | Richie Stanaway Chris Pither | Holden Commodore ZB | 01'13.447 | 03.119 |
| View full results | ||||
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Van Gisbergen rushed to help McLaughlin after crash
About this article
| Series | Supercars |
| Event | Surfers Paradise |
| Drivers | Scott McLaughlin |
| Teams | Dick Johnson Racing |
| Author | Andrew van Leeuwen |
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