Despite a late charge from Ryan Wood, Buchan held on to take his maiden GT World Challenge Australia pole position with a 1:04.3750s lap in the #23 Ferrari 296.
Buchan’s effort gives the prancing horse its first GTWC pole of the season, despite the turbocharged 296 initially expected to struggle in the Darwin heat.
Supercars front-runner Wood (#88 Audi R8) narrowly missed out on the top spot, slotting into second by just 0.063s.
Reigning champion Broc Feeney (#1 Audi) was usurped in the closing minutes by his Supercars rival Wood, trailing the Kiwi by 0.0008s.
Jayden Ojeda was the fastest Mercedes-AMG runner in the #66 Tigani Motorsport entry in fourth place, with Team BRM’s Alex Peroni (#268 Audi) rounding out the top five.
Championship leader Brendon Leitch (#44 Mercedes) was sixth fastest, ahead of ARGT’s Jaxon Evans (#26 Ferrari).
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Oscar Targett (#56 Mercedes) was eighth, ahead of fellow SRO GT Academy competitor Valentino Astuti (#2 Audi).
Luke Youlden (#71 Porsche) rounded out the top 10 to be the fastest Trophy Class runner in the newer generation 991.2 GT3 R.
Ojeda narrowly avoided what he described on the broadcast as “a plane crash” with Trophy contender Paul Stokell (#24 Audi) on the run to the hairpin.
In what was a moment of miscommunication, Stokell appeared to slow to allow Ojeda through.
However, Ojeda was forced to take avoiding action at the last second in an effort to not collide with the Team MPC Audi.
When the Am drivers rolled out for Qualifying 2, Schumacher stunned to take the #1 Audi to the top with a 1:05.3930s.
Schumacher’s lap was largely unexpected, having not set personal best first and second sectors on his fastest lap.
Audis occupied three of the top five spots, with Team BRM’s Mark Rosser 0.12s behind Schumacher in the #268 entry.
Championship leader Sergio Pires (#44 Mercedes) rounded out the top three.
Qualifying 2 ran largely incident free, however Shane Smollen (#56 Mercedes) found the grass on the outside of Turn 1.
Matt Stoupas (#24 Audi) topped the Trophy class in 12th position outright.
GT World Challenge Australia returns for its first race of the weekend at 3:45pm ACST.
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