Photo: Supercars

Scott McLaughlin pips Jamie Whincup to opening Darwin race pole

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Supercars Championship leader Scott McLaughlin has taken his fifth pole position of the 2020 season afer getting his DJR Team Penske #17 car to the top of the order in the top fifteen shootout.

Though Jamie Whincup had taken provisional pole heading in to the shootout after the Triple Eight driver had crashed earlier in Practice 2, it was McLaughlin who got the edge over his championship rival by just over a tenth of a second.

It was a mixed bag of results from practice in to qualifying as early pacesetter Chaz Mostert suffered a broken tailshaft in the #25 Walkinshaw Andretti United entry, having to start from position 20 for this afternoon’s opening race.

Fabian Coulthard was able to get his DJRTP car up to third in qualifying, just ahead of the Team 18 car of Mark Winterbottom, a best qualifying result for the 2015 series champion since Round 3 last season.

From fifth on the grid, Cam Waters heads the Tickford Racing cars with the Erebus Motorsport duo of Anton de Pasquale and David Reynolds behind him as James Courtney, Shane van Gisbergen and Scott Pye completed the Top 10.

Racing begins at 3:30pm local time.