Richard Muscat has blitzed the field to claim pole position for Round 4 of the Australian GT Championship at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Muscat bagged top spot by virtue of a qualifying record 1:26.86s lap in the opening half of the 20 minute session, and was confident enough to spend most of the balance of proceedings in pit lane, completing just four laps in the Wilson Security AMG SLS GT3.

The combination of Warren Luff/Steve McLaughlan will start second in an encouraging performance from the latter’s Audi.

The car underwent a significant rebuild following a crash in Townsville seven weeks ago, and is now running in updated 2013 Ultra specification.

The Audi was, however, ominously some 1.20s adrift of championship leader Muscat’s Mercedes, whose Erebus Motorsport team dominated at the Western Sydney venue last year when Jack Le Brocq was behind the wheel.

Nathan Antunes was the early qualifying pace-setter in the Trophy Class Audi and will start third in the car he shares with owner Rod Salmon.

Klark Quinn nicked fourth from Steven Richards at the chequered flag, the latter falling just short of his Practice 2 benchmark in Justin McMillan’s Lamborghini.

John Bowe/Peter Edwards (Ferrari) complete the third row, while Tony Quinn (Aston Martin), James Koundouris/Steve Owen (Porsche), Adrian Deitz/Josh Hunt (, and Daniel Gaunt/Jan Jinadasa round out the top ten.

The first of two 1 hour races will be held tomorrow at 1110.