Winton Supercars: McLaughlin beats Mostert to pole

The DJR Team Penske driver ran slightly out of sequence across the two runs, slotting into sixth right at the end of the first run with a 1m19.992s.

He then fired into the pits just minutes from the end of the session for a fresh set of rubber, before blasting to pole with a 1m19.380s right at the flag.

“It was all part of the plan,” said McLaughlin about his last-gasp lap.

“It was pretty rushed there, I was trying to get a nice gap. There was a bit of traffic, I was lucky to hang on.

“I was pretty pumped after that one, when you work for it, it makes it good. I was a really good lap, I put everything together. It’s a good place to be.”

McLaughlin’s time bumped Chaz Mostert back to second, the Prodrive Racing Australia driver having made up 10 spots on his final lap to temporarily sit in P1 with a 1m19.544s.

Shane van Gisbergen edged teammate Jamie Whincup to go third fastest, the Kiwi falling just 0.03s short of Mostert.

“It’s the first time we ran new tyres, so I’m quite happy with that,” said van Gisbergen. “The guys in front are a little bit quicker still, buy yeah, we’re in with a shot.”

Like his teammate Fabian Coulthard went for the last-second lap, but could only improve to fifth on his final run despite setting a purple first sector. That dropped Brad Jones Racing driver Nick Percat to the outside of the third row, with Rick Kelly leading the way for Nissan in seventh and Will Davison in eighth.

Mark Winterbottom and Cam Waters made it three PRA Fords in the Top 10 by locking out the fifth row.

Wildcard entry James Golding put in an impressive performance, out-qualifying Garry Rogers Motorsport regular James Moffat on his way to 18th on the grid.

The young gun also finished ahead of Craig Lowndes, the veteran not only struggling to match his Triple Eight teammates but a long way from even troubling the Top 10, finishing up down in P19.

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	km/h
1	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'19.3807	136.053
2	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'19.5447	135.772
3	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore VF	1'19.5747	135.721
4	88	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore VF	1'19.6454	135.601
5	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'19.7619	135.402
6	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore VF	1'19.8698	135.220
7	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	1'19.9055	135.159
8	19	Will Davison	Holden Commodore VF	1'19.9425	135.097
9	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'19.9448	135.093
10	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'19.9705	135.049
11	7	Todd Kelly	Nissan Altima	1'19.9961	135.006
12	18	Lee Holdsworth	Holden Commodore VF	1'20.0261	134.955
13	33	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore VF	1'20.1508	134.746
14	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore VF	1'20.1716	134.711
15	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore VF	1'20.1864	134.686
16	56	Jason Bright	Ford Falcon FG-X	1'20.2024	134.659
17	23	Michael Caruso	Nissan Altima	1'20.2208	134.628
18	31	James Golding	Holden Commodore VF	1'20.2867	134.517
19	888	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore VF	1'20.2894	134.513
20	4	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore VF	1'20.2901	134.512
21	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore VF	1'20.3439	134.422
22	21	Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore VF	1'20.3995	134.329
23	22	James Courtney	Holden Commodore VF	1'20.4620	134.224
24	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	1'20.4749	134.203
25	34	James Moffat	Holden Commodore VF	1'20.9073	133.486
26	99	Dale Wood	Holden Commodore VF	1'20.9762	133.372
27	26	Shae Davies	Nissan Altima	1'21.0538	133.244
28	3	Taz Douglas	Holden Commodore VF	1'21.1823	133.033
29	62	Alex Rullo	Holden Commodore VF	1'21.4057	132.668