Van Gisbergen crushes opposition in shootout en route to pole

Shane van Gisbergen destroyed his opposition on his way to another Supercars pole position, this time for the first NTI Townsville 500 race this afternoon.

The Kiwi Red Bull driver claimed provisional pole in the afternoon’s earlier qualifying session, and backed up his performance with a scintillating lap in the top ten shootout to secure pole.

In fact, so impressive was the lap that van Gisbergen ended up 0.3572s faster than his nearest rival – Red Bull teammate Jamie Whincup.

Van Gisbergen is a multiple winner at Townsville, charging from 12th to victory lane in last year’s rendition of the event.

“I saw the splits through the middle of the lap and I just saved the tyre for the last sector, for the race,” van Gibsergen said. “[It was] unbelievable.

“I’m just the lucky guy who gets to drive this car; it’s a pretty special place to be in at the moment.”

Behind van Gisbergen and Whincup is an all-Shell V Power Racing second row, with Will Davison getting the edge on teammate Anton de Pasquale.

Davison was on for a solid lap, but a slight error at turn three ruined his shot at a front row start.

Nick Percat will start fifth, ahead of James Courtney, the first of three Tickford cars in the top ten.

Tim Slade will be left somewhat disappointed that he could only muster eighth on the grid after finishing second in the earlier qualifying session.

Though he still starts ahead of David Reynolds and Cam Waters, both of whom made costly mistakes on their sole belt for pole.

The two other Kiwis in the field start outside the top ten.

Andre Heimgartner narrowly missed out on making the shootout and qualified 11th. 

Meanwhile, a troubled weekend for Fabian Coulthard so far means he starts a lowly 23rd.

The first 88-lapper of the weekend is scheduled to begin at 5.45 pm NZT.