Qualifying for Race 25 at Queensland Raceway unfolded under bright, clear skies, with the sunny conditions setting the stage for an intense three-stage battle for pole position.
Q1 –
The opening 15-minute session saw drivers fight for a place in the top 18 to progress. Broc Feeney immediately set the benchmark with a 1:09.100 before improving to a 1:08.870, holding a healthy margin at the top. Triple Eight teammate Will Brown briefly joined him in a 1-2 before the field pitted for fresh tyres.
Matt Payne made a big leap from 24th to 7th, while Richie Stanaway went fastest with a 1:08.803. Jack Le Brocq edged ahead by just 0.011s, only to be shuffled down again as the times tumbled.
Wildcard Zach Bates stunned with a jump from 20th to third, but Brown and Feeney both returned to the top.
Ryan Wood charged from 22nd to second, just 0.010s off Feeney, while Payne again climbed into the top five.
Stanaway briefly regained P1 before Cooper Murray posted a 1:08.464, which Feeney quickly bettered with a 1:08.325 to end Q1 on top.
The top 18 – covered by just over half a second – progressed to Stage 2: Feeney, Murray, Brown, Stanaway, Golding, Wood, Jones, Bates, Reynolds, De Pasquale, Payne, Davison, Percat, Kostecki, Courtney, Le Brocq, Mostert, and Hill.
Eliminated: Waters (19th), Heimgartner (20th), Evans (21st), Allen (22nd), Randle (23rd), Cameron (24th), Fullwood (25th), and Crick (26th).
Q2 –
With just eight minutes on the clock, Feeney again set the early pace with a 1:08.604 before Bates stole top spot by 0.030s.
After the first runs, the provisional top 10 included Bates, Feeney, Murray, Le Brocq, Stanaway, Kostecki, Payne, Wood, Mostert, and Jones.
On new tyres, Feeney returned to P1 before Brown slotted into second, 0.085s adrift.
Wood surged from 16th to 4th, while Payne climbed from 16th to 6th. Bates improved to second again, but it was Anton De Pasquale who stole the session late with a 1:08.154 – 0.035s ahead of Feeney.
Advancing to the Top 10 Shootout: De Pasquale, Feeney, Bates, Brown, Kostecki, Mostert, Wood, Golding, Hill, and Reynolds.
Eliminated: Stanaway (11th), Payne (12th), Courtney (13th), Jones (14th), Percat (15th), Le Brocq (16th), Murray (17th), and Davison (18th).
Top 10 Shootout –
The one-lap dash began with Reynolds, who set a cautious benchmark of 1:09.602 after a tidy but slightly conservative lap, his best sector coming in the middle split.
Hill followed and immediately went green in sector one before producing purple sectors in the final two, shaving 0.251s off Reynolds’ time to take provisional pole with a 1:09.351.
Golding was next and came out firing, going purple in sector one. Despite losing a fraction in the middle split, he crossed the line with a 1:09.339, moving into P1 by just 0.012s.
Then came Wood, the sole Kiwi in the Shootout. He pieced together a superb lap, green in sector one and purple in sector two, before powering home with a 1:08.812. That put him 0.527s ahead of Golding and set a formidable target.
Mostert was next. He went green in the opening two sectors but didn’t quite have the pace in the final part of the lap, stopping the clock at 1:09.359, slotting into fourth behind Wood, Golding, and Hill.
Kostecki came out swinging but it wasn’t quite enough, setting green times in the first two sectors. A small lock-up into the final corner cost him time, leaving him with a 1:09.237, still good enough for second place at that stage.
Brown looked a threat from the start, going purple in sector one. A clean middle sector kept him in the hunt, and he crossed the line with a 1:08.830, just 0.018s shy of Wood to take provisional second.
Bates then took on the challenge of used tyres, a huge disadvantage compared to those before him. Despite that, he delivered green sectors in the first two splits and crossed the line with a 1:09.142, an impressive fifth place at that moment, ahead of Kostecki, Golding, Hill, Mostert, and Reynolds.
Feeney was on another level, purple in both of the first two sectors and already up four-tenths on Wood’s time. He finished the lap with a 1:08.349, blowing the field away by 0.462s.
Finally, De Pasquale, who topped Q2, was last to run. He went green in the first two sectors but couldn’t match Feeney’s blistering pace, posting a 1:09.002 for fourth place on the grid.
Top 10 Shootout Results – Race 25
- Broc Feeney – 1:08.349
- Ryan Wood +0.462s
- Will Brown +0.480s
- Anton De Pasquale +0.652s
- Zach Bates +0.793s
- Brodie Kostecki +0.888s
- James Golding +0.989s
- Cameron Hill +1.002s
- Chaz Mostert +1.009s
- David Reynolds +1.253s
Feeney’s pole is his thirteenth pole this season and with Wood’s sensational lap putting him alongside for the start, it will be a drag race down to Turn 1 come race time.
The 200-km race gets underway later today at 5:15 pm NZST, with conditions again expected to remain clear, setting the stage for a fast and fiercely contested 39-lap battle.
Header Image: Supercars
