De Pasquale on provisional pole, van Gisbergen makes shootout

Shane van Gisbergen is the only Kiwi to have sealed a spot in today’s top-ten shootout for the Mount Panorama 500.

The Red Bull driver will be the second-to-last man out on track this afternoon after being pipped by Anton de Pasquale for the top spot in a 20-minute qualifying session.

The latest Dick Johnson Racing recruit waited till the final moments of the session to set his best lap time, beating van Gisbergen by 0.1s.

“It’s only the fifth new tyre run I’ve done in this thing,” said de Pasquale.

“I’m learning, learning, learning. We were struggling a bit yesterday but we put in a big effort over night. The car was a bit more to my liking. We chipped away at it as the session went on, went aggressive with it, and here we are.”

Yesterday’s pace setters Cam Waters and Chaz Mostert were third and fourth fastest. 0.1 and 0.2s adrift in a hotly fought battle.

Tim Slade carried over his strong showings from practice to snatch a place in the shootout, just ahead of Erebus rookie Brodie Kostecki.

Will Davison made it two DJR cars in the Shootout with the seventh quickest time ahead of Scott Pye, Jamie Whincup and Mark Winterbottom.

Andre Heimgartner and fabian Coulthard were on the wrong side of the cut-off, with the Kelly Grove Racing driver starting today’s race from 14th, while Coulthard will get going from the tenth row.

Only one red flag punctuated the day, when Nick Percat rolled to a stop along Mountain Straight with an electrical issue.

The top-ten shootout is scheduled to begin at 2.10 pm NZT.