Shane van Gisbergen, Will Davison share Sunday poles at Symmons Plains

Shane van Gisbergen and Will Davison will start Sunday’s two Supercars races from pole position after back-to-back qualifying sessions at Symmons Plains that ended in dramatic fashion.

Having lost the points lead on Saturday, Chaz Mostert laid down the early marker in the first session but was quickly shuffled down the order as drivers improved on the second lap of their first run.

DJR’s Anton de Pasquale – running on used rubber – became the first driver to break the 51s marker to hold provisional pole ahead of Mark Winterbottom and Jake Kostecki, with race one winner Shane van Gisbergen down in fifth and Mostert slipping down outside the top ten.

Cam Waters, polesitter for race one, was also left with work to do as the field came in for fresh tyres, with his Mustang back in 17th.

The field then streamed back out for the second run in the session for what was effectively a one lap run to see who would secure pole for race two, with Broc Feeney grabbing provisional pole only for van Gisbergen to immediately jump his young team-mate.

Van Gisbergen then improved slightly on his next lap to cement pole ahead of Feeney as Triple Eight locked out the front row, with Winterbottom and David Reynolds – who came together late on in the opening race – ending the session sitting alongside each other on the second row of the grid.

Tim Slade was a solid fifth in his Mustang ahead of Will Davison in the lead DJR entry, with Scott Pye and de Pasquale rounding out the top eight; the latter unable to improve on his second run.

Elsewhere, Mostert was again left with work to having only managed the 16th best time, but that was better than Erebus duo Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown who struggled for pace and will line up down in 23rd and 24th.

After a short break, the drivers headed back out for the second qualifying session in order to determine the grid for the final race of the weekend.

Davison immediately set a time that almost matched van Gisbergen’s race two pole time to sit in top spot ahead of the defending champion following the first runs, with Todd Hazelwood slotting into third for Matt Stone Racing with a lap less than a tenth of a second off the pace.

Waters would return to the pits without setting a time in the #6 entry, whilst Macauley Jones and Chris Pither both elected to sit out the first runs.

As the field then headed back out, both Davison and Hazelwood would remain in the pits having called time on their efforts and van Gisbergen looked set to grab a second pole of the day as he went purple in the first two sectors but he then clattered into Slade’s Mustang at the end of the back straight.

It popped the right rear tyre off the Triple Eight Holden with Slade running off track with damage as the session was red-flagged with little more than a minute on the clock – with officials electing not to restart.

It meant pole for Davison for the final race of the weekend, with Jack Le Brocq joining him on the front row having been one of the few drivers able to improve before the red flag was thrown.

Van Gisbergen ended up third quickest despite the clash with Slade, with the two drivers unsurprisingly holding differing views on an incident that will now be investigated by officials. Hazelwood, de Pasquale and Reynolds completed the top six.

Once again, it would prove to be a tough session for Mostert down in 19th spot and Brown, who will be back down in 23rd.