Separate crashes from Richie Stanaway, Cameron Hill and David Reynolds at Turn 8 have brought an early end Friday’s timed qualifying session at the Adelaide 500.
After a lengthy deliberation, race officials made the decision to declare the session following just five minutes of green flag running, which leads to a mixed up grid and an opening race that promises plenty of overtaking.
Among those to progress to Saturday’s Top 10 Shootout is Aaron Love and Jaxon Evans, who sit 24th and 23rd in the championship respectively.
Evans is joined by Brad Jones Racing teammates Bryce Fullwood and Macauley Jones, and Love has his Blanchard Racing Team teammate James Courtney for company in the top ten.
The decision to hit the track early worked well for provisional Team’s Champion’s Red Bull and lead Ford squad Tickford, who each have both drivers progress.
Championship leader Will Brown’s 1:19.4425s stood as the fastest time of the session, nearly four-tenths quicker than Cam Waters. Thomas Randle was third, ahead of Broc Feeney.
Matt Payne is the other driver to qualify for the Top 10 Shootout, while his teammate Richie Stanaway was the first to miss out and will start tomorrow’s race in 11th.
Among those who failed to progress were Walkinshaw Andretti United duo Chaz Mostert and Ryan Wood, with the former failing to even set a time in the first five minutes of the allocated 15 minute session.
Mostert, who is third in th championship, will start from 22nd, only ahead of Hill, who crashed, and James Golding. Of the five Kiwis, Wood’s qualifying result of 16th is the lowest. Andre Heimgartner was the only BJR driver not to progress in 13th.
While Supercars has produced some tight qualifying sessions over the year, this was not one of them, with the 21 cars that did set a lap seperated by 13.2 seconds, highlighting how caught out several teams were.
The series of session-ending crashes began when Stanaway ran side-on into the Turn 8 wall at high speed. The departing Grove Racing driver kept the car under control and returned to pit lane under his own power.
Moments later, Hill suffered the same fate, having clipped the inside wall first before bouncing off the outside wall and sliding down the straight and back into the inside wall to severely damage his Camaro.
Reynolds was the next into the same spot as the red flag was called. His car rode up over his damaged wheel and landed up against the rear of Hill’s. Both cars will need considerable work done overnight before returning to action.
Race control initially suspended the session, before declaring it 30 minutes later.
Saturday’s Top 10 Shootout begins at 3.05 pm NZST ahead of the opening race at 5.50 pm.
Adelaide 500 Race 1 Provisional Grid
| 1st* | Brown |
| 2nd* | Waters |
| 3rd* | Randle |
| 4th* | Feeney |
| 5th* | Courtney |
| 6th* | Payne |
| 7th* | Love |
| 8th* | Evans |
| 9th* | Jones |
| 10th* | Fullwood |
| 11th | Stanaway |
| 12th | Kostecki |
| 13th | Heimgartner |
| 14th | Davison |
| 15th | De Pasquale |
| 16th | Wood |
| 17th | Murray |
| 18th | Winterbottom |
| 19th | Percat |
| 20th | Slade |
| 21st | Reynolds |
| 22nd | Mostert |
| 23rd | Hill |
| 24th | Golding |
Header Image: Fox Sports.
