DJR Team Penske get pole 100 with Scott McLaughlin in Ipswich
Scott McLaughlin has taken the 100th pole position for DJR Team Penske and moved himself up to second on the ATCC/Supercars pole list after holding off his rivals in a tight Saturday qualifying at Queensland Raceway.
The defending series champion and current championship leader topped every session this weekend en route to taking the prime starting spot for this afternoon’s 120km sprint race, notching up a historic milestone for his team in the process.
Looking for a third win in three years at his team’s home track, McLaughlin looked to have everything under control with one lap pace despite a late threat to dismount him from pole position in the third qualifying session.
Qualifying One
Held for the drivers who didn’t make the top ten in practice two on Friday, the first 10 minute hitout saw Cam Waters in the Tickford Racing Mustang go to the top in his first flying lap, just ahead of Brad Jones Racing’s Tim Slade.
Slade’s team-mate Nick Percat put himself at the top of the order in his last flying lap, posting a lap of 1:09.2051 to head up Waters, Slade and Scott Pye in the Walkinshaw Andretti United car to get through to the section qualifying portion.
Andre Heimgartner, Mark Winterbottom, Simona De Silvestro, James Courtney, Garry Jacobson, James Golding, Rick Kelly, Michael Caruso, Macaulay Jones and Jack Le Brocq all missed the cut, not taking any further part in qualifying.
Qualifying Two
With clouds starting to cover the circuit as the green light came on, Jamie Whincup was quick out of the gate in his Triple Eight car, being the fastest car on the first flying laps with a 1:08.8855 which was a tenth clear of Scott McLaughlin, the due the only cars to do a sub-1:09 time.
The sun made a return to bathe the track with two minutes remaining in the session but the increased surface temperatures didn’t affect McLaughlin’s lap, going two tenths clear of Whincup after going around in 1:08.6815, though Whincup tried to respond and missed out on the top spot by under a tenth.
Both Brad Jones Racing cars of Percat and Slade failed to advance with results of 11th and 13th while Todd Hazelwood, who finished fourth in Friday practice, could only manage 12th. Pye also couldn’t make it through to the final shootout, starting the race from 14th.
Qualifying Three
The final ten remaining cars rolled out of the pit lane for the closing session as the clouds came back to cover the first sector of the track. McLaughlin took advantage of the conditions, posting a lap of 1:08.6513 on his first flying lap whole Will Davison in the 23Red Racing car worked himself up to second, one tenth down on the leader.
The top three from the first half of the session replicated Friday’s practice results with McLaughlin heading Davison and Tickford Racing’s Chaz Mostert as the Erebus Motorsport pairing of David Reynolds and Anton de Pasquale followed the Fords into the top five.
After having his first flying lap deleted, Lee Holdsworth put his Tickford machine up to third while everyone else was rolling out of the pits for their last goes. Whincup and van Gisbergen hadn’t yet completed a lap as Coulthard and Waters were parked up, not taking any further part in the session.
On his only flying lap, Whincup moved himself into second by just over a tenth, his lap of 1:08.7481 jumping just 0.0032 ahead of Davison in third as van Gisbergen jumped up to fifth. Holdsworth was able to hang on to fourth on the grid while Mostert, de Pasquale, Reynolds, Coulthard and Waters completed the top five rows.
