Scott McLaughlin says Volvo Polestar Racing must pull together to solve its ongoing reliability gremlins after a heartbreaking end to an otherwise promising Townsville weekend.

Townsville marked a return to form for Volvo as McLaughlin scored the team’s first top five finish of the season on Saturday, before storming to pole on Sunday.

The 22-year-old’s run ended just 19 laps into the 70 lap Race 17, however, as a power steering failure spelt retirement.

The squad’s engine woes had also returned in Saturday morning practice, with the team forced into an unscheduled change following a failure in final practice.

“We’re going to have to do something to get back to where we were last year because we can’t keep going like this,” McLaughlin told Speedcafe.com.

“Something has got to happen, because five DNFs aren’t the best thing, but it’s up to Garry and Barry (Rogers) and the rest of the crew to sort out.

“It’s disappointing as a driver because it knocks your confidence around.

“But it’s not just us, we’ve got sponsors to perform for and we all know what pressures we’re under.

“It’s just one of those things that we’ve got to pull through as a team.”

McLaughlin was meanwhile encouraged that ongoing development work had at least seen the S60 again prove a front-runner on pace.

“We’ve been trying stuff during the practices throughout the year and finally just worked out what’s good,” he said.

“It’s parts and set-up options, trying to understand the car a bit better on the hard tyre and trying a completely different set-up window.

“The pole was a massive reward for the work the boys have been doing and hopefully it’s a turning point, but we won’t know until Queensland Raceway.”