Sandown Supercars: Mostert beats Waters to pole
Chaz Mostert beat former teammate Cam Waters to pole for the opening heat of the Sandown SuperSprint.
Photo by: Mark Horsburgh, Edge Photographics
After cruising through the first two segments of qualifying, Mostert and Waters faced off in a fierce battle for pole in Q3.
It was Waters that drew first blood with a 1m08.130s on his first run, before Mostert pieced together a two-lap run in the 1m07s, the best a 1m07.630s.
Waters did his best to respond on his final run but fell just 0.04s short.
"I can't believe it," said Mostert.
"We were struggling in practice with the balance of the car, but credit to [engineer] Adam [Deborre] and the whole crew at Walkinshaw Andretti United, we worked really hard. The guys haven't stopped, they haven't had a lunch break. It's a big reward for the team."
Jamie Whincup led the way for Triple Eight in third place, 0.15s behind Mostert, while Mark Winterbottom kept his strong start to the weekend going with fourth on the grid.
Jack Le Brocq was impressive in his Tickford Mustang, edging Anton De Pasquale and Andre Heimgartner for fifth.
Will Davison was eighth quickest for Dick Johnson Racing, while Erebus got both cars into Q3, Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown qualifying ninth and 10th.
A number of big names didn't feature in the final segment if qualifying, the biggest shock points leader Shane van Gisbergen. Despite nursing a broken collarbone the Kiwi comfortably ran in the Top 10 in practice, only to slump to 17th in qualifying.
"I just didn't drive well enough and didn't get the tyres phased good enough," said van Gisbergen. "It was only a tenth to get in and we didn't quite make it."
James Courtney failed to convert his promising practice pace, the Tickford driver left on the bubble in 11th, while the Nick Percat (14th), David Reynolds (16th) and Tim Slade (19th) were among those bumped out of Q2.
One of the surprises of the session was Bryce Fullwood, the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver knocked out of Q1 and left on the back row of the grid.
He explained that his best lap was ruined by a lock-up, while the resulting flat spot left him powerless to improve on the second lap of the run.
"I was on a pretty reasonably lap there and I locked the left-front really bad into Dandenong," he said.
"I had a severe flat spot, but I knew I had to press on. I was a bit scared the tyre was going to explode down he back straight, but I knew I had to put some form of lap in. I just couldn't make it happen."
Jack Smith, meanwhile, will start the race from dead last, his qualifying campaign ending in the gravel on his first lap in Q1. The subsequent red flag meant he couldn't take part in the rest of the session.
"I just pinched a wheel, there's a little kerb there on the left hand side, nicked it and I knew that was going to be that," he explained.
"It was an unrecoverable lock-up. I tried to keep it going in the gravel but it's a bit of an awkward gravel trap and I was never going to get out. It's my fault."
Qualifying results:
Pos | # | driver | car | time | gap | int |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 25 | Chaz Mostert | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.6303 | ||
2 | 6 | Cameron Waters | Ford Mustang GT | 1'07.6752 | 0.0449 | 0.0449 |
3 | 88 | Jamie Whincup | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.7883 | 0.1580 | 0.1131 |
4 | 18 | Mark Winterbottom | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'07.8552 | 0.2249 | 0.0669 |
5 | 5 | Jack Le Brocq | Ford Mustang GT | 1'07.9646 | 0.3343 | 0.1094 |
6 | 11 | Anton de Pasquale | Ford Mustang GT | 1'08.0366 | 0.4063 | 0.0720 |
7 | 7 | Andre Heimgartner | Ford Mustang GT | 1'08.1988 | 0.5685 | 0.1622 |
8 | 17 | Will Davison | Ford Mustang GT | 1'08.2035 | 0.5732 | 0.0047 |
9 | 99 | Brodie Kostecki | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.2437 | 0.6134 | 0.0402 |
10 | 9 | Will Brown | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.5145 | 0.8842 | 0.2708 |
11 | 44 | James Courtney | Ford Mustang GT | 1'08.2183 | 0.5880 | |
12 | 34 | Jake Kostecki | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.2205 | 0.5902 | 0.0022 |
13 | 96 | Macauley Jones | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.2214 | 0.5911 | 0.0009 |
14 | 8 | Nicholas Percat | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.2231 | 0.5928 | 0.0017 |
15 | 14 | Todd Hazelwood | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.2242 | 0.5939 | 0.0011 |
16 | 26 | David Reynolds | Ford Mustang GT | 1'08.2796 | 0.6493 | 0.0554 |
17 | 97 | Shane van Gisbergen | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.2844 | 0.6541 | 0.0048 |
18 | 20 | Scott Pye | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.3087 | 0.6784 | 0.0243 |
19 | 3 | Timothy Slade | Ford Mustang GT | 1'08.3983 | 0.7680 | 0.0896 |
20 | 19 | Fabian Coulthard | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.8110 | 1.1807 | 0.4127 |
21 | 35 | Zane Goddard | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.7650 | 1.1347 | |
22 | 22 | Garry Jacobson | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.7861 | 1.1558 | 0.0211 |
23 | 2 | Bryce Fullwood | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'08.9783 | 1.3480 | 0.1922 |
24 | 4 | Jack Smith | Holden Commodore ZB |
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Related video
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments