McLaughlin and van Gisbergen share poles on Sunday in Darwin

Quick Kiwis Scott McLaughlin and Shane van Gisbergen have shared pole positions and will start alongside each other for this afternoon’s two races at Darwin’s Hidden Valley Raceway after qualifying this morning.

The two drivers were split by less than a tenth of a second across both qualifying sessions with McLaughlin grabbing pole for DJR Team Penske in the first race while van Gisbergen will have the inside line in his Triple Eight machine for race two.

van Gisbergen drew first blood in the opening session, posting the fastest time early in the 10 minute outing but McLaughlin fought back in the closing seconds to secure the top spot by just 0.0565 of a second over his Kiwi compatriot.

Session two for the final race of the weekend saw Nick Percat set a fast lap on a relatively clear track during the opening moments of the second, taking his Brad Jones Racing car around the circuit quicker than he had in the first outing.

As the field hit the track for the last qualifying laps of the day, van Gisbergen and McLaughlin traded quickest sectors with the latter getting the best middle sector but it was van Gisbergen who stitched the quicker lap together, making use of a tow behind McLaughlin’s team-mate Fabian Coulthard to get up by 0.0302 over the #17 car.

An elated van Gisbergen had reason to celebrate at the conclusion of the session thanks to the Triple Eight crew, having installed a new engine in the #97 overnight after he qualified 11th for yesterday’s race.

For the second day in a row, Team 18 were the quiet achievers, taking the third spot on the grid for both races this afternoon with Scott Pye and Mark Winterbottom respectively, following on from a good showing last weekend.

Percat’s early lap in qualifying two was good enough for fourth position by the end of the 10 minute session, three spots higher than his lap which put him in seventh for today’s first race.

Tickford Racing’s Cam Waters was the fastest from the four-car team in both sessions, starting fourth and sixth for race one and two respectively while only his team-mate James Courtney made it in to the top 10 for the penultimate outing.

Racing begins at 1200 local time for the first of the two 38 lap races with the Top End trip coming to a close at 1425 with the last race in Darwin for the year.