Nick Percat takes pole ahead of Shane van Gisbergen

Nick Percat set an impressive time in the top ten shootout, to take his first pole position of the season. 

Percat and David Reynolds both moved up the grid from their provisional spots coming into the session fifth, and 10th respectively, with Reynolds moving up to third on the grid. 

David Reynolds was the first to take on the fully wet track, setting a 1.44.397 to go almost 1.5 seconds faster than the qualifying lap that put him into the shootout.

Cam Waters was next out in the session, off the back of a podium result last night. Waters struggled to put a lap together, down almost half a second on Reynolds in each sector, setting a 1.45.93. 

Chaz Mostert was faster than former teammate Waters in the first sector, but down in the second to set a 1.45.95. To finish just 0.02 off the time set by Waters. 

After crashing in the earlier qualifying session, Jamie Whincup, made progress in the first sector bettering Reynolds time by 0.3 of a second but had a moment in the second sector that saw him almost match the time set by Reynolds to that point. Whincup couldn’t match the Kelly Grove Racing driver in the last sector setting a time of 1.44.71, to slot in second. 

Tim Slade went out next setting the second-fastest time in the first sector to that point before sliding wide on the exit of turn five, bettering the time set by Whincup to move into second, behind Reynolds with a 1.44.54. 

Percat had an impressive first sector going 0.4 seconds faster than Reynolds, before struggling with understeer through the second sector, still improving on the time of Reynolds, setting another good time in the final sector to take the lead; bettering Reynolds time by half a second, with a 1.43.8, the first to make it into the 1.43 times. 

After setting an impressive time to make it into the shootout Fabian Coulthard, set a strong time in the first sector almost matching the time set by Percat, but again struggled through the middle sector losing 0.7 seconds, but matched Percat through the final sector, setting a 1.44.62 to move into fourth. 

Todd Hazlewood lost half a second in the first section of the track to his teammate Percat but almost matched him in the middle, and final sectors, to set a 1.44.57 slotting into fourth, ahead of Coulthard. 

Shane van Gisbergen was the second last car to head out, setting an almost identical time to Percat in the first sector, just 0.04 away from his time, but lost time in the second sector, down 0.2 on the time set by Percat, but couldn’t make it back in the final sector, setting a 1.44.26 in second, 0.4 off the time set by the BJR driver. 

Andre Heimgartner was the final car to head out in the shootout, but was almost half a tenth off Percat’s time to the end of the first sector, losing another half a second in the second and third sectors, to take eighth. 

Race 30 Top 10 Shootout results:

1. Nick Percat 
2. Shane van Gisbergen 
3. David Reynolds
4. Tim Slade 
5. Todd Hazlewood 
6. Fabian Coulthard 
7. Jamie Whincup 
8. Andre Heimgartner 
9. Cam Waters
10. Chaz Mostert

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