After taking pole position for Thursday afternoon’s race, Kostecki got out of his #17 Ford Mustang with a noticeably dirty race suit.
Supercars pit lane reporter Mark Larkham said the 2023 champion had been ill in the car and vomited on his fastest lap.
His team were pictured cleaning the car in between sessions.
Kostecki led the in-form James Golding for the Blanchard Racing Team by a meagre 0.0437s at the conclusion of the 12-minute session.
Third went the way of Broc Feeney in the #88 Triple Eight Race Engineering Mustang while Matt Payne was fourth in the #19 Grove Racing Mustang.
Chaz Mostert was fifth in the best of the Toyota Supra quintet for Walkinshaw TWG Racing, while the best of the Chevrolet Camaro contingent was Anton De Pasquale in seventh for Team 18.
The session was without major incident, save for Macauley Jones suffering an engine issue with his Supra.
“It had no oil pressure when I started the thing up and it didn’t recover obviously,” said Jones.
“I think it looks like we’ve spat a belt, so we’re going to have a look into it. Pretty disappointing to not even get out on track.”
The car was fixed in time for the second qualifying sessions.
Results: Repco Supercars Championship Melbourne SuperSprint, Qualifying (Race 1)
| Pos | Num | Driver | Team | Car | Laps | Lap | Diff | Gap |
| 1 | 17 | Brodie Kostecki | Dick Johnson Racing | Ford Mustang GT | 5 | 1:47.6108 | ||
| 2 | 7 | James Golding | Blanchard Racing Team | Ford Mustang GT | 5 | 1:47.6545 | 0.0437 | 0.0437 |
| 3 | 88 | Broc Feeney | Triple Eight Race Engineering | Ford Mustang GT | 5 | 1:47.8864 | 0.2756 | 0.2319 |
| 4 | 19 | Matthew Payne | Grove Racing | Ford Mustang GT | 5 | 1:47.8895 | 0.2787 | 0.0031 |
| 5 | 1 | Chaz Mostert | Walkinshaw TWG Racing | Toyota GR Supra A90 | 5 | 1:47.9400 | 0.3292 | 0.0505 |
| 6 | 3 | Aaron Cameron | Blanchard Racing Team | Ford Mustang GT | 5 | 1:47.9693 | 0.3585 | 0.0293 |
| 7 | 18 | Anton De Pasquale | Team 18 | Chev Camaro ZL1 | 5 | 1:48.0410 | 0.4302 | 0.0717 |
| 8 | 6 | Cameron Waters | Tickford Racing | Ford Mustang GT | 6 | 1:48.1450 | 0.5342 | 0.104 |
| 9 | 2 | Ryan Wood | Walkinshaw TWG Racing | Toyota GR Supra A90 | 5 | 1:48.2284 | 0.6176 | 0.0834 |
| 10 | 99 | Cooper Murray | Erebus Motorsport | Chev Camaro ZL1 | 5 | 1:48.2309 | 0.6201 | 0.0025 |
| 11 | 800 | Andre Heimgartner | Brad Jones Racing | Toyota GR Supra A90 | 5 | 1:48.3222 | 0.7114 | 0.0913 |
| 12 | 888 | William Brown | Triple Eight Race Engineering | Ford Mustang GT | 5 | 1:48.3343 | 0.7235 | 0.0121 |
| 13 | 4 | Jack Le Brocq | Matt Stone Racing | Chev Camaro ZL1 | 5 | 1:48.3623 | 0.7515 | 0.028 |
| 14 | 55 | Thomas Randle | Tickford Racing | Ford Mustang GT | 5 | 1:48.3942 | 0.7834 | 0.0319 |
| 15 | 10 | Zach Bates | Matt Stone Racing | Chev Camaro ZL1 | 5 | 1:48.4857 | 0.8749 | 0.0915 |
| 16 | 20 | David Reynolds | Team 18 | Chev Camaro ZL1 | 5 | 1:48.5212 | 0.9104 | 0.0355 |
| 17 | 26 | Kai Allen | Grove Racing | Ford Mustang GT | 5 | 1:48.5748 | 0.964 | 0.0536 |
| 18 | 11 | Jackson Walls | Triple Eight Race Engineering | Ford Mustang GT | 5 | 1:48.5972 | 0.9864 | 0.0224 |
| 19 | 14 | Cameron Hill | Brad Jones Racing | Toyota GR Supra A90 | 5 | 1:48.8950 | 1.2842 | 0.2978 |
| 20 | 38 | Rylan Gray | Dick Johnson Racing | Ford Mustang GT | 5 | 1:49.0493 | 1.4385 | 0.1543 |
| 21 | 777 | Declan Fraser | PremiAir Racing | Chev Camaro ZL1 | 5 | 1:49.2362 | 1.6254 | 0.1869 |
| 22 | 9 | Jobe Stewart | Erebus Motorsport | Chev Camaro ZL1 | 2 | 2:50.5641 | 1:02.9533 | 1:01.3279 |
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