Chaz Mostert secures first 2021 pole, sets new Sandown qualifying record

Sandown Raceway’s qualifying lap record has been broken by Chaz Mostert as the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver took his first pole of the 2021 Supercars season ahead of race three.

Mostert was consistently fast across qualifying, putting the WAU #25 to the top of the order across all three ten-minute sessions, culminating in a blinding lap to give the young maverick his first pole of the year.

The opening qualifying session hadn’t yet got to its halfway mark before the red flag came out, Jack Smith bowling a wide into Dandenong Road and burying the Brad Jones Racing car in the sand trap, forcing the session to a halt while the #4 was recovered.

Jamie Whincup was the first driver to put in a truly representative time, his 1:08.0442 enough to get the Triple Eight car through to the next segment of qualifying without needing to go back out on track. Only five drivers set a time before the red flag came out, meaning the six minutes and 40 seconds of running left when the session went green would be more frantic than usual.

Chaz Mostert moved himself to the top of the order with the fastest lap of the day on his flying lap, putting Walkinshaw Andretti United easily into the next stanza of qualifying while Will Davison was on track to topple the Commodore, setting the fastest middle sector before going off the road and aborting the lap which could have put Dick Johnson Racing in first place.

With the first ten minute session over, Zane Goddard (Matt Stone Racing), Garry Jacobson (Team Sydney), Bryce Fullwood (WAU) and Jack Smith were knocked out, having to start from 21st to 24th respectively.

Part two of qualifying saw a lot of drivers roll out in the opening flying laps on their roaded sets from the opening session, retaining some heat despite the short break with teams wanting to bank a lap early.

Davison went to the top on the first set of laps but Mostert soon retook the top spot, again resetting the bar for the fastest lap of the round on a 1:07.8819 while further back down the order, championship leader Shane van Gisbergen sat 15th in the dying moments, dropping to 17th at the end of the session.

With only the bottom ten progressing, James Courtney (Tickford Racing), Jake Kostecki (MSR), Macauley Jones (BJR), Nick Percat (BJR), Todd Hazelwood (BJR), David Reynolds (Kelly Grove Racing), van Gisbergen, Scott Pye (Team 18), Tim Slade (Blanchard Racing Team) and Fabian Coulthard (Team Sydney) had their positions frozen for the first race of the weekend.

The final qualifying session of the day saw only four cars roll out in the opening half of the ten minute outing to put in banker laps, the rest deciding to save their tyres for a one-shot run.

Again, Mostert blew the field away with a 1:07.6304, only a tenth down on the track record while Waters nearly toppled his former team-mate, ending up 0.0448 down on the WAU car as Whincup moved to third behind them.

The order remained the same for the rest of the session with Mark Winterbottom taking fourth for Team 18 ahead of Tickford’s Jack Le Brocq. The DJR cars of Anton de Pasuqale and Davison were split by Andre Heimgartner’s KGR #7 while the two Erebus entires of Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown rounded out the top ten.

Race three for the championship starts at 1645 local time.