Mostert heads Ford front-row for Race 11

Prodrive’s Chaz Mostert narrowly defeated DJR Team Penske’s Fabian Coulthard for the Race 11 Armor All Pole Award at Winton.

Mostert was the class of the field during the 20 minutes, sitting atop the order with a 1:18.80s ahead of the final green tyre runs.

The Supercheap Ford then went quicker again in the dying seconds, improving the qualifying record to 1:18.76s.

Mostert and Coulthard are both aiming to become the season’s 10th winner from 11 races this year.

“This one goes to my engineer,” said Mostert of his third pole of the season and the 13th of his career.

“We were a little bit behind the eight-ball in practice but he stuck to his guns and gave us a really fast car

“I’m looking forward to the race. Yesterday we had good race pace so it’s nice to be starting further forward.”

Coulthard was fourth ahead of the final runs before improving to second, just 0.0058s adrift of his Ford rival.

“It’s a good turnaround from yesterday,” said Coulthard, who qualified just 15th for Race 10.

“We should have done a reasonable lap but I made an error through the sweeper and you just can’t afford to do that.

“Hopefully today we can turn it around.”

Holden drivers Craig Lowndes and Tim Slade will share the second row ahead of Michael Caruso in the fastest Nissan.

Scott McLaughlin, Rick Kelly, Jamie Whincup, Will Davison and Mark Winterbottom complete the top 10.

Whincup and Winterbottom were third and sixth respectively before both failing to improve on their second runs.

Shane van Gisbergen was just 12th in the second Red Bull entry after making a mistake at the end of what would have been his fastest lap.

It was another disastrous session for the Holden Racing Team, whose drivers Garth Tander and James Courtney were 19th and 20th respectively.

The 200km Race 11 will get underway at 1345 local time.

Result: Virgin Australia Supercars Championship Woodstock Winton Super Sprint Race 11 Qualifying