McLaughlin beats lap record, takes pole for night race
Supercars championship leader Scott McLaughlin has stamped his authority over the field in qualifying for tonight’s race by completing the fastest ever lap of Sydney Motorsport Park in the DJR Team Penske Ford Mustang.
Though the two-time reigning series champion only scraped into the Top 15 Shootout with an eleventh place in qualifying, a fresh set of soft Dunlop rubber let him attack on his shootout lap, clocking a 1:27.7428 to go nearly two-tenths clear of his own lap record.
He will line-up alongside fellow Kiwi and consistent adversary Shane van Gisbergen, the Triple Eight pilot able to take the second spot on the grip albeit a quarter of a second down on the #17 in front after going quickest in the first of the three qualifying sessions.
Triple Eight has both of their cars on the first two rows with Jamie Whincup starting fourth between the two Tickford Racing entries of Cam Waters and Lee Holdsworth. All cars down to 12th position ran the soft tyres in the shootout with Chaz Mostert wheeling the Walkinshaw Andretti United machine home to be the quickest of the hard compound runners.
Late runs in the day’s second qualifying session saw the order end up mixed with some drivers opting to buy now and pay later on the soft tyres while others took a gamble to try and get in on the hards, saving a set of the faster rubber for the shootout.
Race 10 for the championship begins at 1810 local time, running for 32 laps and under an upgraded lighting system after the last SuperNight race in Sydney back in the middle of 2018, an event won by Shane van Gisbergen.
