Adelaide 500: Van Gisbergen takes Sunday pole

Shane van Gisbergen beat Scott McLaughlin to pole position for the second leg of the Adelaide 500.

The Triple Eight driver made up four spots in the Top 10 Shootout compared to Q2, a 1m19.810s leaving him 0.03s clear of Ford hero Scott McLaughlin.

It could easily have been an all-T8 front row, however, with Q2 pacesetter Jamie Whincup looking good for pole before brushing the Turn 11 wall on his Shootout lap.

That was enough to drop him down to seventh on the grid and ensure a first season pole for his Kiwi teammate.

“I’m just gutted Jamie made a mistake there, it would’ve been good [for him] to be on the front-row,” said van Gisbergen.

“But awesome with Scotty starting up front. I’m looking forward to it, my car is really good, so I’m looking forward to today.”

Tickford Racing pair Cam Waters and Will Davison locked out the second row, the latter left to rue a costly lock-up at the final corner on his Shootout lap.

Former Tickford driver Chaz Mostert put his Walkinshaw Holden fifth on the grid ahead of Fabian Coulthard and Whincup, as Lee Holdsworth, Rick Kelly and Anton De Pasquale rounded out the best 10.

For the second day running Jack Le Brocq’s qualifying session was affected by a mechanical drama.

This time he did manage to turn a lap in Q2, however a suspected transaxle issue stopped him from a crucial final run and left him on the wrong side of the bubble in 11th.

David Reynolds, meanwhile, was surprise omission from the Shootout, an engine drama sidelining his Erebus Holden in Q2 before he could set a time.

That means he’ll start today’s race from 14th.

“I don’t know what happened, it just sounded funny when I started it up to take the green flag,” said Reynolds.

“It sounded like a plug lead but I’m not sure. They couldn’t get it fixed in time, the short sessions make it really difficult to get out.

“It’s going to be a really tough day but that’s racing. It happens to everyone, unfortunately.”

The two Team Sydney cars failed to trouble the scorers in Q1, James Courtney edging Chris Pither in 22nd and 23rd as the former complained of a broken control arm.

Last on the grid went to Jack Smith, the rookie’s difficult full-time debut continuing with a heavy hit at the Turn 8 wall on his first flying lap.

“It felt like a reasonably hard hit but the car looks okay, much to my surprise and the rest of the team,” he said.

“I clipped the wall on the inside. I knew it before I even hit it, I saw it coming, I knew I turned in too early, misjudged it, just clipped it and it spat me out.”

Cla#DriverLapsTimeGapInterval
197 Shane van Gisbergen1 1’19.810   
217 Scott McLaughlin1 1’19.848 0.038 0.038
36 Cameron Waters1 1’19.950 0.140 0.101
423 Will Davison1 1’20.033 0.223 0.083
525 Chaz Mostert1 1’20.113 0.303 0.079
612 Fabian Coulthard1 1’20.132 0.322 0.019
788 Jamie Whincup1 1’20.237 0.427 0.105
85 Lee Holdsworth1 1’20.307 0.497 0.069
915 Rick Kelly1 1’20.365 0.555 0.058
1099 Anton De Pasquale1 1’20.516 0.706 0.150

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