Kelvin van der Linde has earned pole position for Round 4 of the Australian GT Championship in Townsville despite being punished for passing under yellow flags.
Van der Linde was fastest in Qualifying 1, but came under investigation post-session for passing under yellows on the session’s out-lap.
The Audi factory driver was found to be in breach and stripped of his two fastest laps as a result, but his next two were still good enough to put him faster than Ash Walsh.
As a result, the #74 Jamec Pem Audi R8 of van der Linde/Geoff Emery will start on the inside of the front row for this afternoon’s Race 1, alongside the #44 Supabarn Audi R8 of Walsh/Duvashen Padayachee.
“Obviously we’ve had a good car the whole weekend; I seemed to get up to speed quite quickly yesterday,” said van der Linde.
“(It was a) Difficult qualifying session, there was a bit of confusion in the beginning.
“Going out of the pit lane I passed Roger (Lago), there were no yellow flags on track, and then obviously yellow flags came out after about Turn 3.
“I followed Liam (Talbot) around and he seemed to have a problem with his car actually; he was going really, really slow.
“I got a call (on the radio) that said, ‘Look he’s going slow, there must be something wrong,’ so to go for it so I could get a clear lap, that’s what I did and it seemed to pay off.”
Glen Wood improved on his early effort during Qualifying 2 in the #48 M Motorsport Lamborghini R-EX, but not enough to advance his provisional starting berth of third position.
Roger Lago found nearly 0.6s in the #23 JBS Lamborghini R-EX to move from eighth after Qualifying 1 to fourth after Qualifying 2 with the second-fastest time in the latter session.
Lago thus bumps Brad Shiels/Andrew Macpherson (#51 AMAC Motorsport Porsche 997 GT3-R) to fifth and Max Twigg (#8 WM Waste Management Mercedes AMG GT) to sixth.
Championship leader Liam Talbot moved up from last to ninth after the #911 Walkinshaw Porsche 911 GT3-R had a throttle body problem in Qualifying 1.
Steven Richards/James Bergmuller will start from 10th in the #100 Laser Plumbing BMW M6.
Race 1, 40 minutes duration, starts at 1400 local time/AEST today.
Results: Qualifying 2
| 1 | Interlloy M Motorsport | Glen Wood (Vic) | Lamborghini R-EX | 1:12.7742 | |
| 2 | JBS Australia | Roger Lago (Qld) | Lamborghini R-EX | 1:12.9427 | 0:00.1685 |
| 3 | YNA Autosport/McElrea Racing | Fraser Ross (Vic) | McLaren 650S GT3 | 1:13.3421 | 0:00.5679 |
| 4 | Supabarn Supermarkets | Duvashen Padayachee NSW | Audi R8 LMS | 1:13.4185 | 0:00.6443 |
| 5 | Valvoline | Geoff Emery | Audi R8 LMS | 1:13.4419 | 0:00.6677 |
| 6 | MEGA Racing | Liam Talbot (Qld) | Porsche 911 GT3-R | 1:13.4704 | 0:00.6962 |
| 7 | Moveitnet / AFS | Tony Bates (Vic) | Mercedes Benz AMG GT | 1:13.5164 | 0:00.7422 |
| 8 | WM Waste Management Services | Max Twigg (Vic) | Mercedes Benz AMG GT | 1:13.5303 | 0:00.7561 |
| 9 | Ah Apartments/Team ASR | Ash Samadi (Vic) | Audi R8 LMS | 1:14.4068 | 0:01.6326 |
| 10 | Scott Taylor Motorsport | Scott Taylor (Qld) | Mercedes Benz AMG GT | 1:14.5353 | 0:01.7611 |
| 11 | Hallmarc Constructions | Marc Cini (Vic) | Audi R8 LMS | 1:14.7853 | 0:02.0111 |
| 12 | Darrell Lea/Keltic Racing | Tony Quinn (Qld) | McLaren 650S GT3 | 1:14.8636 | 0:02.0894 |
| 13 | Objective Racing | Tony Walls (NSW) | McLaren 650S GT3 | 1:15.0069 | 0:02.2327 |
| 14 | BMW Team SRM | James Bergmuller | BMW M6 GT3 | 1:15.9557 | 0:03.1815 |
| 15 | AMAC Motorsport/IMAK/Kwikmit | Andrew Macpherson (NSW) | Porsche 997 GT3-R | 1:16.6561 | 0:03.8819 |
Starting grid: Race 1
| 1 | Valvoline | Emery/van der Linde | Audi R8 LMS | Q1 | |
| 2 | Supabarn Supermarkets | Duvashen Padayachee | Audi R8 LMS | Q1 | |
| 3 | Interlloy M Motorsport | Glen Wood | Lamborghini R-EX | Q2 | |
| 4 | JBS Australia | Roger Lago | Lamborghini R-EX | Q2 | |
| 5 | AMAC Motorsport/IMAK/Kwikmit | Macpherson/Shiels | Porsche 997 GT3-R | Q1 | |
| 6 | WM Waste Management Services | Max Twigg | Mercedes Benz AMG GT | Q1 | |
| 7 | YNA Autosport/McElrea Racing | Fraser Ross | McLaren 650S GT3 | Q2 | |
| 8 | Moveitnet / AFS | Tony Bates | Mercedes Benz AMG GT | Q1 | |
| 9 | MEGA Racing | Liam Talbot | Porsche 911 GT3-R | Q2 | |
| 10 | BMW Team SRM | Bergmuller/S.Richards | BMW M6 GT3 | Q1 | |
| 11 | Objective Racing | Tony Walls | McLaren 650S GT3 | Q1 | |
| 12 | Ah Apartments/Team ASR | Ash Samadi | Audi R8 LMS | Q2 | |
| 13 | Scott Taylor Motorsport | Scott Taylor | Mercedes Benz AMG GT | Q2 | |
| 14 | Darrell Lea/Keltic Racing | Tony Quinn | McLaren 650S GT3 | Q1 | |
| 15 | Hallmarc Constructions | Marc Cini | Audi R8 LMS | Q2 |
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