Jay Hanson takes Race 1 pole at Phillip Island after late red flag

AWC MPC Racing’s Jay Hanson claimed a last-gasp pole position for the opening TCR Australia race of the weekend at Phillip Island after Fabian Coulthard brought out a red flag.

Hanson, who claimed the first victory for the new Audi RS 3 LMS TCR at Symmons Plains last month, posted a best time of 1:35.813 to emerge just under four-tenths of a second quicker than Michael Caruso in Q2.

“We tuned the car up for Q1 and then a bit more for Q2 so I’m really happy with pole,” Hanson said.

“The car is really fast, especially when you get it in the window, so a big shout-out to the team who did a great job.”

Supercars regular Coulthard, in just his second series outing, had earlier topped Q1 in his Wall Racing Honda Civic Type-R but ran wide on his penultimate run and got beached in the gravel before Turn 11.

That brought out the red flags with two minutes left in the session, with race officials electing not to restart.

While Coulthard was left disappointed with third on the grid, things were far worse for points leader Josh Buchan, who failed to make Q2 in his HMO Customer Racing Hyundai i30 N TCR.

He will start the first race of the weekend later on today from 17th on the grid as the Hyundais generally struggled for top-end pace.

Buchan’s team-mate Bailey Sweeny was the first driver to set a representative lap-time in his HMO Customer Racing Hyundai i30 N TCR in Q1, with a time of 1:27.426.

But that benchmark was quickly beaten by GRM’s Dylan O’Keefe and then the sister GRM Peugeot 308TCR of Jordan Cox.

With the top 10 proceeding to the second segment, the action was frantic in the closing stages, with a number of late improvements.

Inaugural series champion Will Brown leapt up to second in his MPC Audi RS 3 LMS before being usurped by Ashley Seward Racing’s Caruso on his final attempt.

Caruso had spent around five minutes in the pits with an unspecified issue before heading out with two minutes of the session remaining. His last lap was just six-hundredths of a second behind Cox’s best.

Coulthard then went fastest in the final minute with a 1:36.121, just fractionally ahead of Wall Racing team-mate Tony D’Alberto.

At the start of Q2, Cox was the first to set the benchmark time of 1:36.920, before Caruso leapt to the top of the table ahead of Coulthard.

Hanson just managed to get over the line to set the eventual pole time before the session was stopped as Coulthard, pushing hard, slid off the circuit between turns 10 and 11, beaching his Honda in the gravel.

Outside the top three, O’Keefe starts Race 1 from fourth on the grid, ahead of Liam McAdam’s Audi and Cox’s Peugeot.

Symmons Plains Race 3 winner Zac Soutar will line up seventh on the grid in his Honda, with D’Alberto alongside.

The Volkswagen of Lachlan Mineef and Audi of Brown failed to set a representative lap-time in Q2 owing to the red flag and complete the top 10.

Race 1 at Phillip Island is scheduled to start at 16:40 AET (06:40 CET)