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Championship leader Shane van Gisbergen has secured provisional pole position ahead this afternoon’s Top Ten Shootout for Race 31 at the Gold Coast 500.
The 20-minute session was red-flagged twice after separate incidents for Jake Kostecki and Todd Hazelwood, before van Gisbergen laid down the fastest lap by a substantial 0.39sec ahead of Chaz Mostert and Brodie Kostecki.
“It means nothing though, the shootout’s still to come,” van Gisbergen told Fox Sports of the 1:10.4046 lap. The Red Bull Ampol driver said he had difficulty switching the tyre on before setting that fast lap. “My second lap was quicker with the tyres over pressure. Maybe we learnt something there.”
Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert was second-fastest with a 1:10.7965, with a late lap from Brodie Kostecki to put his Erebus Commodore third on the timesheets with a 1:10.8607.
Ahead of the session, fastest in Practice yesterday was Tickford Racing’s Bathurst pole-sitter Cam Waters with 1:10.7215, ahead of Shell V-Power’s Will Davison who’d topped first Practice, with championship leader Shane van Gisbergen third fastest.
Van Gisbergen sat out the first run as the rest of the field tackled the 2.9-kilometre street circuit, lead by team-mate Broc Feeney. David Reynolds set the early pace in the #26 Penrite Racing Mustang before Will Davison delivered a 1:11.019 in the #17 Shell V-Power Racing Mustang to go fastest as Jake Kostecki understeered into the wall at Turn 12 on Breaker Street and Serisier Avenue to bring out the first of two red flags.
“We struggled a bit yesterday, just getting used to the track,” Kostecki told Fox Sports. “I felt quite strong through the track before I went off; just locked brake late, there’s not much you can do after that … just a little mistake and that’s the end of our session, which sucks.””
With Davison at the top of the time sheet, the session recommenced at 11:38 AEST and just over 15 minutes remaining.
Van Gisbergen was the first car out, with Davison consolidating his position at the top of the time sheets with an even faster 1.10.8976 lap as Waters joined him in the 1:10s for P2 with a 1:10.9755. It was van Gisbergen who stormed to provisional pole with a 1:10.6696 to be the first driver to lap faster than Davison’s practice lap, the fastest of the weekend to that point.
A second red flag was caused by Todd Hazelwood burying his Truck Assist Matt Stone Racing Commodore into the tyre at Turn 14 with 9:24 remaining on the clock.
When the field returned to the track at 11:49am only the top four drivers had made it into the 1:10s, with van Gisbergen leading Davison, Andre Heimgartner and Waters.
Van Gisbergen went faster with the 1:10.4046 that would earn him provisional pole, as Mostert’s 1:10.7965 remained good enough for second as he returned to the pits with more than three minutes remaining.
As the chequered flag fell, Kostecki’s late lap for third saw him ahead of Davison, James Courtney the fastest of the Tickford Racing cars in fifth ahead of Reynolds, Heimgartner, Randle, and Waters in ninth.
Finishing tenth, meaning he will be the first on track for this afternoon’s shootout, will be Shell V-Power Racing’s Anton DePasquale, the only driver the Top 10 who didn’t make it into the 1:10s, with a 1:11.0014 lap time.
The Top Ten Shootout takes place at 13:05 AEST ahead of Race 31, which starts at 15:45 AEST.
