Townsville Supercars: McLaughlin takes eighth season pole

Thanks to the warm, cloudy conditions the track was fastest early in the session, Craig Lowndes diving straight down to a 1m12.389s on his first run.

McLaughlin and Whincup then banked a 1m12.123s and a 1m12.179s respectively to go first and second quickest on the six-minute mark, while Shane van Gisbergen slotted into, a couple of tenths back.

All three did head back out on another set of greens later in the session, but the only to improve was van Gisbergen – and even then not by enough to overrun McLaughlin and Whincup's early times.

"I made a massive blue on the last run there so luckily no one went faster,” said McLaughlin.

“But we have a fantastic car and we’ll just see if we can do it in the race.”

David Reynolds ended up fourth fastest, finding gains through set-up late in the session despite the track not being as quick as it was at the start.

Lowndes was shuffled back to fifth with that early lap, while Mark Winterbottom showed the first signs of competitiveness from Tickford this weekend with the sixth quickest time.

Tim Slade will start seventh, Will Davison eighth, Fabian Coulthard ninth, and Rick Kelly as the best Nissan in 10th.

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG X	1'12.1239
2	1	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	1'12.1792	0.0553
3	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	1'12.2319	0.1080
4	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore ZB	1'12.2795	0.1556
5	888	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore ZB	1'12.3892	0.2653
6	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG X	1'12.4036	0.2797
7	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore ZB	1'12.5121	0.3882
8	230	Will Davison	Ford Falcon FG X	1'12.5828	0.4589
9	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Falcon FG X	1'12.5829	0.4590
10	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	1'12.6118	0.4879
11	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	1'12.6684	0.5445
12	99	Anton de Pasquale	Holden Commodore ZB	1'12.7032	0.5793
13	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG X	1'12.7095	0.5856
14	25	James Courtney	Holden Commodore ZB	1'12.7367	0.6128
15	33	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore ZB	1'12.7511	0.6272
16	56	Richie Stanaway	Ford Falcon FG X	1'12.7808	0.6569
17	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG X	1'12.7834	0.6595
18	19	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	1'12.8893	0.7654
19	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	1'12.9366	0.8127
20	18	Lee Holdsworth	Holden Commodore ZB	1'12.9887	0.8648
21	7	Andre Heimgartner	Nissan Altima	1'13.0089	0.8850
22	35	Todd Hazelwood	Ford Falcon FG X	1'13.0759	0.9520
23	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	1'13.0986	0.9747
24	34	James Golding	Holden Commodore ZB	1'13.1605	1.0366
25	21	Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore ZB	1'13.1925	1.0686
26	23	Michael Caruso	Nissan Altima	1'13.4843	1.3604