Photo: Supercars

Scott McLaughlin takes second straight pole in Sunday sweep

Championship leader Scott McLaughlin has moved his career pole tally to 59 after taking the top spot in qualifying for this afternoon’s Supercars Championship race at Queensland Raceway.

The DJR Team Penske driver has topped every session so far on Sunday, including resetting his own lap record around the Ipswich circuit in the tight morning practice.

His second pole of the weekend gives him an advantage at the start of race two as he looks for a third win around his team’s home track in three years, after a lack of race pace saw him come home off the podium in fourth in race one.

Practice

The top five at the start Sunday’s morning practice session replicated the results of race one, with Jame Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen going one-two early on for Triple Eight while the Tickford Racing run cars of Will Davison and Chaz Mostert followed, joined by DJR Team Penske driver McLaughlin.

McLaughlin became the first driver to go under 1:09 with a 1:08.9227, moving himself to the top of the table in the second half of the session as Rick Kelly jumped to third with ten minutes left in his Kelly Racing Nissan.

Lap times continued to tumble towards the end of the session as the field tried to get themselves into the top ten and gain a free pass into qualifying two. Davison got down to a 1:08.8261 as Andre Heimgartner was in 10th with a 1:09.3652 in the Kelly Racing car before the final runs.

van Gisbergen lowered the bar for the top spot with a 1:08.7449 in the dying minutes but McLaughlin responded, setting a new lap record at Queensland Raceway with a time of 1:08.3985 and going over two tenths clear of the field.

The final runs after the flag saw McLaughlin stay at the top while Mostert, Whincup, van Gisbergen, Lee Holdsworth, Davison, Cam Waters, Anton de Pasquale, Andre Heimgartner and Rick Kelly squeeze into the top ten, assuring themselves a spot in the second qualifying session.

Qualifying One

Part one for qualifying was fought between the bottom 14 drivers from practice, all looking to further advance through qualifying and have a chance at improving their grid positions.

David Reynolds in the Erebus Commodore went fastest early on, followed by Nick Percat from Brad Jones Racing, DJR Team Penske’s Fabian Coulthard and Todd Hazelwood in the Matt Stone Racing entry.

The session was red flagged in the last minute after Macauley Jones spun out of Turn 1 thanks to a mechanical issue, stalling the car and not being able to get moving off the racing line, effectively bringing the session to an end.

James Golding, Scott Pye, Mark Winterbottom, James Courtney, Simona De Silvestro, Tim Slade, Michael Caruso, Garry Jacobson, Jack Le Brocq and Jones were all knocked out of qualifying.

Qualifying Two

McLaughlin went quickest on the first runs in the second ten minute outing, but his margin at the front was reduced when Mostert put his Tickford car within 0.0015 seconds of the top time.

Whincup had his first flying lap deleted after going too wide at Turn 2, responding by putting in the fastest lap of the session which was shortly eclipsed by McLaughlin who went just 0.0176 faster than his Triple Eight rival.

On his last lap, Davison moved into tenth by a tiny margin over Fabian Coulthard, knocking the DJR Team Penske driver out of qualifying as Holdsworth, de Pasquale and Kelly had to join him on the sidelines for the final hit out.

Qualifying Three

Clouds covered the circuit ahead of the last opportunity for the remaining ten drivers to set their grid positions, giving the pack an incentive to go out early while the conditions were ideal.

While Whincup was the first to cross the finish line for a lap, McLaughlin put in the quickest tour early on with a 1:08.5474, just over a tenth shy of his lap record effort from the day’s earlier practice session.

In the final moments, Mostert looked on track to get up between McLaughlin and Whincup, moving into position two just one tenth down on the fastest time as Whincup and van Gisbergen locked out the second row for Triple Eight.

Davison and Waters featured on row three in the Tickford prepared Mustangs with Andre Heimgartner getting the Kelly Racing Nissan up to seventh, just ahead of Percat, Hazelwood and Reynolds.

Sunday’s 200km race will start at 2:10pm local time and will feature a compulsory fuel drop of 110 litres.