Anton De Pasquale has shown his Friday practice pace at the Bunnings Trade Sydney SuperNight was no fluke, grabbing provisional pole for tonight’s race ahead of the top 10 shootout.
Teammate Will Davison and Shane van Gisbergen were his nearest rivals, ending the session second and third. It was also a strong qualifying for both Erebus Motorsport drivers Will Brown and Brodie Kostecki; the pair both making it into the shootout via laps good enough for fifth and seventh.
Heading into qualifying, the walk was of how different the conditions were relative to the previous day; strong winds now pushing the cars down the front straight and increasing top speeds into turn one.
Friday practice hero De Pasquale was the first to throw down a representative time, with a 1:28.714 some five minutes in.
His time survived the first cycle of quick laps, with Brown, Nick Percat, Shane van Gisbergen, and Will Davison the nearest rivals.
Predictably, it wasn’t until the dying moments that the session’s order would resolve in full.
De Pasquale’s initial pace was vindicated by an improved lap of 1:28.558. This was good enough to see the Shell pilot claim yet another provisional pole position.
His teammate Davison was amongst those to improve in the final flurry, jumping to second place, a tenth and a half away from provisional pole.
Van Gisbergen ended up third, with Nick Percat, Brown, Cameron Waters, Kostecki, Jamie Whincup, Chaz Mostert, and Tim Slade completing the top 10.
David Reynolds narrowly missed out on a shootout birth, finishing up 11th. Andre Heimgartner and Todd Hazelwood were 12th and 13th, failing to translate the strong pace they both showed in Friday practice.
Fabian Coulthard rounded out the Kiwi contingent in 14th.