De Pasquale takes career-first poles

Anton De Pasquale has taken the first two poles of his Repco Supercars Championship career in Qualifying for Races 10 and 11 of the season at The Bend.

De Pasquale led a Shell V-Power Racing Team lockout in the earlier of the two 10-minute sessions after pipping Will Davison, and is set to be joined by Red Bull Ampol Racing’s Jamie Whincup on the front row for Race 11.

The latter hit-out was a better one for Triple Eight Race Engineering with championship leader Shane van Gisbergen fourth, but both he and Whincup missed the top 10 on the grid for the first race of today at the OTR SuperSprint.

Dry conditions finally greeted the field with De Pasquale’s pole times a 1:48.6765s and then a 1:48.1859s, the latter putting him a full three tenths clear of the rest.

“We’ve been working hard all year trying to catch the guys next door [Triple Eight] and everyone else,” said the double pole-sitter.

“We’ve been a bit down on overall speed so it’s good to come here with a fast car and we’ll try to obviously make it count in the race. It’s good to get the first two.”

On how to convert those starting berths into a win, De Pasquale replied, “Like everyone says, good start, decent car, see what happens, a bit of luck, all that stuff.

“It should be good. We’ve got a fast car, we’ll just make it a bit more comfortable for the race to suit the race and we’ll see how we go.”

Qualifying for Race 10

De Pasquale (#11 Mustang) was fastest of those who went for an early run in Qualifying for Race 10 with a 1:49.1836s, which stood as the benchmark until Tim Slade (#3 CoolDrive Mustang) clocked a 1:49.0432s.

With the chequered flag out, Race 9 winner Andre Heimgartner (#7 Ned Mustang) provisionally got onto the front row with a 1:49.1533s.

He was back off it when Davison laid down a 1:48.8677s to go to the top, but the #17 Mustang only held that spot for seconds before De Pasquale set a 1:48.6765s.

Behind the all-DJR front row is thus Slade, Heimgartner, and Cameron Waters (#6 Monster Energy Mustang), the latter on a 1:49.2113s, while the first Holden driver on the grid will be Chaz Mostert (#25 Mobil 1 Appliances Online ZB Commodore) in sixth.

Rounding out the top 10 were Nick Percat (#8 R&J Batteries ZB Commodore), David Reynolds (#26 Penrite Mustang), James Courtney (#44 Boost Mobile Mustang), and Mark Winterbottom (#18 Irwin Tools ZB Commodore).

Van Gisbergen (#97 ZB Commodore) was 0.8044s off the pace in 13th, and Whincup (#88 ZB Commodore) 0.9191s away from pole in 16th.

Qualifying for Race 11

Triple Eight reportedly changed camber on Whincup’s car and stiffened the rear of van Gisbergen’s in the break ahead of Qualifying for Race 11.

The former then banked an impressive first flyer in clocking a 1:48.4861s as he followed Davison around the circuit, before van Gisbergen set a 1:48.7131s.

Davison, meanwhile, had pitted after a moment at Turn 17 and the DJR crew set to work in a bid to address an issue with the gear lever in the #17 Mustang.

Slade was on a fast one in the final minutes of the session when he locked up and spun off completely at Turn 17, before De Pasquale nailed the 1:48.1859s on his first flyer.

Slade moved into fourth position with a 1:48.7689s on the next lap after his rotation, but was bumped back a spot when Davison took up third with a 1:48.6044s.

Waters jumped four spots to third after the chequered flag with a 1:48.5473s, and Mostert moved temporarily to fifth on a 1:48.6425s, before van Gisbergen crept onto the second row with a 1:48.5996s.

Whincup found no improvement on on his second run and therefore qualified second.

After Car #88, the rest of the top 10 was Waters in third, from van Gisbergen, Davison, Mostert, Bryce Fullwood (#2 Mobil 1 Middy’s ZB Commodore), Slade, Jack Le Brocq (#5 Truck Assist Mustang), and Percat.

Race 10 of the 2021 Supercars Championship starts at 12:30 local time/13:00 AEST.

Results: Qualifying for Race 10, OTR SuperSprint

Results: Qualifying for Race 11, OTR SuperSprint