Sydney Supercars: McLaughlin takes night race pole

The DJR Team Penske driver opted to roll the dice on getting through Q1 and Q2 without using the soft compound Dunlop, which meant he was just 11th fastest heading into the Top 15 Shootout.

However once on a set of green softs he was remarkably quick, McLaughlin breaking his own lap record – set just three weeks ago – to grab pole with a 1m27.742s.

"You always feel like this is happy hour, you can go really fast in these conditions," he said. 

"The car felt really good, I'm really comfortable with it on soft tyres. We need to make it a little bit better on the hard [tyres], but overall I'm really happy with it."

Shane van Gisbergen made a similar gain, making up eight spots compared to this Q2 effort. However he fell two-tenths short of fierce rival McLaughlin.

Cam Waters was the biggest improver in the Shootout, the Tickford driver going from 15th to third, while Jamie Whincup made up 10 spots on his way to fourth.

Lee Holdsworth qualified fifth followed by provisional pole-sitter Fabian Coulthard, who actually dropped five spots thanks to a Q2 run on his set of softs. 

Mark Winterbottom effectively broke even, ending the Shootout in seventh, ahead of Anton De Pasquale, Macauley Jones, Bryce Fullwood, Nick Percat and David Reynolds.

Chaz Mostert was the best of the drivers to run the hard compound in the Shootout, the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver qualifying 13th, followed by Chris Pither and Todd Hazelwood.

Qualifying results:

Cla	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Mustang GT	1'27.742
2	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	1'28.018	0.275
3	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	1'28.059	0.316
4	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	1'28.137	0.394
5	Lee Holdsworth	Ford Mustang GT	1'28.160	0.417
6	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Mustang GT	1'28.385	0.643
7	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	1'28.513	0.770
8	Anton De Pasquale	Holden Commodore ZB	1'28.790	1.047
9	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	1'28.802	1.059
10	Bryce Fullwood	Holden Commodore ZB	1'28.846	1.103
11	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	1'29.010	1.267
12	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore ZB	1'29.038	1.295
13	Chaz Mostert	Holden Commodore ZB	1'29.488	1.745
14	Chris Pither	Holden Commodore ZB	1'30.453	2.711
15	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	1'30.879	3.136
16	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	1'29.891	2.149
17	James Courtney	Ford Mustang GT	1'30.020	2.277
18	Jack Le Brocq	Ford Mustang GT	1'30.205	2.462
19	Garry Jacobson	Holden Commodore ZB	1'30.735	2.993
20	Andre Heimgartner	Ford Mustang GT	1'30.739	2.997
21	Rick Kelly	Ford Mustang GT	1'30.552	2.810
22	Alex Davison	Holden Commodore ZB	1'30.731	2.988
23	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	1'31.339	3.596
24	Zane Goddard	Holden Commodore ZB	1'31.558	3.815
View full results