Richie Stanaway shot to the top of the time sheets late in this afternoon’s timed qualifying session at the Gold Coast 500, which came to an early end after championship leader Will Brown crashed.
Stanaway’s 1:10.4448 earns him the final run of this afternoon’s Top 10 Shootout and was just 0.006 seconds faster than Chaz Mostert’s best effort.
The Tickford duo of Cam Waters and Thomas Randle took third and fourth, making for an all-Ford top four, separated by less than one-tenth.
Title contender Broc Feeney keeps the pressure on his teammate by qualifying as the fastest Camaro in fifth, ahead of Kiwi star Matt Payne, who makes for two Kiwis in the Top 10 Shootout.
James Golding, David Reynolds, James Courtney and Bathurst winner Brodie Kostecki complete the top ten.
Kostecki, who was provisionally eleventh, was the benefactor of Brown’s late crash, with the Red Bull driver losing his best time for causing the red flag.
The crash came at Turn 11 in the final minutes, with Brown tagging the wall with the rear of the #87 Camaro, which spun the car and left it facing the wall around the blind corner.
An unsighted Nick Percat was left with nowhere to go and T-boned Brown on his front-right, as did the following Tim Slade, before Aaron Love did well to avoid a collision and shot through a small gap between the three stricken cars.
The red flag brought an end to the session, and cost several drivers the opportunity to improve on their final laps.
Among those to miss out is Andre Heimgartner, the BJR star having performed strongly all weekend but missing out in qualifying, confining him to 12th, next to Brown.
Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Ryan Wood will start this evening’s race from 17th, while Jaxon Evans brings up the rear of the field.
Supercars returns for the Top 10 Shootout at 3.35 pm NZST, before Race 21 goes green at 6.15 pm, although proceedings are slightly behind schedule following a large crash that caused a significant delay in the earlier TGRA GR86 Cup qualifying.
Supercars Race 21 Starting Grid
| Pole* | Stanaway | 1:10.4448 |
| 2nd* | Mostert | +00.0061 |
| 3rd* | Waters | +00.0090 |
| 4th* | Randle | +00.0550 |
| 5th* | Feeney | +00.1627 |
| 6th* | Payne | +00.3028 |
| 7th* | Golding | +00.3802 |
| 8th* | Reynolds | +00.3994 |
| 9th* | Courtney | +00.4491 |
| 10th* | Kostecki | +00.4836 |
| 11th | Brown | +00.4971 |
| 12th | Heimgartner | +00.5319 |
| 13th | Le Brocq | +00.5563 |
| 14th | De Pasquale | +00.5717 |
| 15th | Winterbottom | +00.5745 |
| 16th | Hill | +00.6296 |
| 17th | Wood | +00.6666 |
| 18th | Jones | +00.6911 |
| 19th | Percat | +00.7472 |
| 20th | Fullwood | +00.7502 |
| 21st | Slade | +00.8519 |
| 22nd | Davison | +00.9438 |
| 23rd | Love | +00.9743 |
| 24th | Evans | +01.0844 |
Header Image: Supercars
