Van Gisbergen flies to provisional pole

Shane van Gisbergen is on provisional pole for race 31 of the 2022 Supercars Championship season after blowing the field away in a stop-start Qualifying on a sparking Saturday on the Gold Coast.

The 20-minute session was interrupted by two red flags, but the disruptions failed to disturb van Gisbergen, who was in a league of his own with his 1:10.4046 almost four tenths faster than the rest.

Car #97 went so fast the Kiwi enjoyed the final frantic minutes from the pit lane and ominously said he struggled to turn the tyres on and believes the big gap “means nothing” for the Top 10 Shootout.

“I lacked on my first lap and could not turn the tyres on, so that is a bit of a worry,” he said in the post Qualifying TV interview.

“We had the tyres a bit up on my second lap and we went a bit quicker, so maybe we learned something there, I do not know.

“It means nothing though, the shootout is still to come.”

A relentless Brodie Kostecki pushed his Erebus Motorsport Commodore up to P3 in qualifying. image: Mark Horsburgh

Behind car #97 it was a tense fight to get into the Top 10 Shootout with 0.2s between runner-up Chaz Mostert and 10th place Anton De Pasquale. 

There was great excitement for the fight for provisional pole after the top four cars and teams were separated by less than a tenth of the second in the final practice session and the drama only increased as drivers pushed hard to make the Top 10 Shootout.

The action started early with all cars heading out straight away aside from championship leader van Gisbergen.

The recently repaired Grove Racing Ford Mustang of David Reynolds laid the early marker going half a second faster than the rest.

But the 2013 Gold Coast 600 winner was not at the top for long, as he was eclipsed by Will Davison and Cameron Waters.

Davison’s #17 emerged on top by 0.0873s moments before Tickford’s Jake Kostecki became the Gold Coast’s first victim of the weekend.

Kostecki’s #56 Tradie Ford Mustang bounced between the walls on the exit of turn 12 to bring out the red flag after less than five minutes of running.

Davison then increased his pace after the break by being the first driver into the 1:10’s and he was soon joined by Waters.

However, the pace set by the Fords was no match for van Gisbergen, who blazed his way to a 1:10.6696 before the second red flag was caused by Todd Hazelwood, who wedged his Matt Stone Racing Commodore into the tyres at the final corner.

The red set up a nine-minute run to the chequered and van Gisbergen used it to blow the field away and record his provisional pole time.

Rocking a new hair cut, Chaz Mostert finished best of the rest behind van Gisbergen. Image: Mark Horsburgh

Mostert pushed the boundaries to edge ahead of Brodie Kostecki, Davison and James Courtney.

David Reynolds just scraped into the 10 at the chequered flag and will be joined by Andre Heimgartner, Tom Randle, Waters and De Pasquale.

The hard story was Scott Pye, who just missed the Shootout by three hundredths of a second, while local boy Broc Feeney could only manage P15 and Chris Pither will start P16 after an overnight engine change.

The fight for pole will rev up when the Top 10 Shootout takes place in just under an hour’s time.

Race 31 Qualifying results

1: Shane van Gisbergen      1:10.4046

2: Chaz Mostert                    +0.3919

3: Brodie Kostecki               +0.4561

4:Will Davison                     +0.493

5: James Courtney            +0.5157

6: David Reynolds              +0.5186

7: Andre Heimgartner      +0.5281

8: Thomas Randle           +0.5281

9: Cam Waters                +0.5281

10: Anton De Pasquale   +0.5968

2022 Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 schedule

Saturday 

Top 10 Shootout 14:05-14:30

Race 31 (85 laps) 16:45-18:50

Sunday

Qualifying 10:55-11:15

Top 10 Shootout 12:35-13:00

Race 32 (85 laps) 15:15-17:20

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