Team 18 fighting at the front again as Mark Winterbottom takes provisional pole ahead of shootout
Former Supercars series champion Mark Winterbottom has shown the pace of the Team 18 cars this weekend by taking provisional pole for this weekend’s opening race at the Darwin SuperSprint.
After posting strong results in practice at Hidden Valley Raceway, Winterbottom went quickest in qualifying ahead of the Top 15 shootout, going out last to determine the finalised grid positions for today’s race.
Backing up his early strong pace in practice, Team 18’s Scott Pye went quickest in the first half of Qualifying 1 with a 1:06.3827 through the first flying laps as only 17 cars headed out on to the track to post times.
Cloud cover started to come over the circuit with under four minutes remaining, dropping track temperature as the field all rolled out again for another crack or their first shots at putting up a lap time.
Only just slower than his time in the closing practice session, Scott McLaughlin went to the top of the order in the #17 DJR Team Penske entry, again just over a tenth up on Pye’s number which remained as the second fastest time until the completion of the 10 minutes.
With only the top 20 progressing to the next stage, Garry Jacobson, Chris Pither, Todd Hazelwood and Jack Smith all failed to make it through to the next portion of qualifying, having to start from where they ended up.
Again showing the pace of the Team 18 machines, Mark Winterbottom was fastest in the first half of Qualifying 2, having gone quicker than McLaughlin’s earlier time to put himself just on three-hundredths of a second faster than Darwin local Bryce Fullwood.
As the chequered flag loomed, some drivers stayed in the pits, banking on their opening laps to be enough to get through to the shootout while others had to roll out to secure a place in the final segment of qualifying.
The Triple Eight cars of Shane van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup were only able to get up to sixth and twelfth respectively, putting the latter in danger of not making it through though the drivers behind him struggled to go quicker on their second laps.
Chaz Mostert was lucky to squeeze into the top 15, having been just in the drop zone but the Walkinshaw Andretti United convert was able to just post a time to get in, meaning David Reynolds, Rick Kelly, Macauley Jones, Alex Davison and Zane Goddard all got dropped from taking further part.
As Winterbottom led the way, Fullwood, Fabian Coulthard, Scott Pye, Scott McLaughlin, Shane van Gisbergen, Cam Waters, Nick Percat, Anton de Pasquale, Lee Holdsworth, James Courtney, Chaz Mostert, Jamie Whincup, Jack Le Brocq and Andre Heimgartner will all take part in the Top 15 shootout to finalise the grid.
