Van Gisbergen takes pole in Perth, Payne fights to fifth

Shane van Gisbergen has qualified on pole for this evening’s opener of the Perth SuperSprint, pipping championship leader Brodie Kostecki by .0257 seconds in the final session of the three-part elimination qualifying.

David Reynolds and Jack Le Broq lockout the second row, while Matt Payne was immense to set the fifth fastest time. Payne will start next to James Courtney, with Will Davison, Thomas Randle, Tim Slade and Bryce Fullwood rounding out the top 10.

It was a more challenging run for Andre Heimgartner, the Kiwi uncharacteristically eliminated from an extremely tight first session to start 21st.

The first 15-minute segment got off to a slow start, only four cars taking to the track in the opening minutes, with Will Brown quick to set a benchmark time of 54.7568 seconds.

Cameron Hill immediately went on to better that as several other teams entered the track with 10 minutes to run. The increase in traffic didn’t stop the times from beginning to fly in, with van Gisbergen and Feeney the last of the field to hit the track with just 7 minutes to run.

Red Bull’s strategy once again proved to be a master class; the two Camaros have a relatively clear track as their rivals stopped, setting times deep within the top 10.

There were two shock eliminations of the bottom five from Q1, with Heimgartner only managing the 21st time, one better than Will Brown. The other drivers failing to progress were Hill, James Golding and Jack Smith. Just .3 of a second separated the top 20, with Heimgartner losing out by .08 seconds.

The second session saw a different approach from teams, with half of the remaining cars hitting the track as soon as the track went green. Times continued to tumble heading into the final runs, with Cam Waters, Anton de Pasquale, Chaz Mostert, Mark Winterbottom and Broc Feeney among the ten drivers eliminated from Q2.

That left Kiwis Payne and van Gisbergen both remaining for the final session, which would determine who started on pole.

The final 15 minutes resembled a Top 10 Shootout early on, with few cars taking to the track to set a time. Van Gisbergen was one of those, laying down a 54.3625 early before returning to the lane with no fresh tyres remaining.

In the final minutes, several others took to the track, including Kostecki and Reynolds. Payne was one of the few who could better his time, leap-frogging up to fifth, while Kostecki fell just .0257 seconds short of van Gisbergen’s time.

Ultimately the defending champion’s time proved enough for pole, much to his surprise while he sat in pit lane, with Kostecki second and Reynolds and Le Broq starting on the row behind.

Race 7 begins at 7 pm tonight and will be shown live on Sky Sport 5.

Supercars Race 7 Starting Grid

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