Feeney scores maiden pole and Kostecki shows pace in crazy back to back qualis

Erebus Motorsport’s Brodie Kostecki and Triple Eight’s Broc Feeney took the honours in two short, but frantic qualifying sessions to open Saturday’s Albert Park action.

Race 5 qualifying 

Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown have kept the good times rolling for Erebus Motorsport, giving the team its first front-row lockout at Albert Park.

Kostecki was in a league of his own in the first wet session of the season, with his 2:00.0824 eight tenths ahead of Brown to give Erebus a perfect starting position for race 5.

Despite being 2.7s off the pace, Bryce Fullwood will start from a best ever grid position of P3 ahead of Anton de Pasquale and rookie Matt Payne.

The track started wet, but dried enough for teams to bolt on the hard slick rubber for the final minutes.

However, the grandstand finish never occurred after a David Reynolds off at Turn 12 brought out the reds.

This meant Chaz Mostert and Shane van Gisbergen shared the sixth row, while Cameron Waters and Broc Feeney were stuck down in P21 and P22 respectively.

With 3.7s separating first to 10th, it was the biggest spread between the top 10 in 43 years since Sandown 1980. Kostecki said he left nothing on the table on the slippery surface.

“I knew there was a lot of pressure on that first lap, so I just sent it,” he said.

“I obviously did pretty good, but I had a pretty good benchmark in front of me.

“It is a credit to the whole team.”

Both Matt Stone Racing and Walkinshaw Andretti United had big repair jobs overnight to ensure both Jack Le Brocq and Nick Percat could qualify.

The field was greeted with a wet track, providing teams with the first chance to run the softer wet Dunlop tyre.

Feeney was the pioneer and ran wide at Turn 3, while Tim Slade went even further off at the first corner.

Race 4 winner Kostecki showed immediate pace, setting purple sectors on his way to being the clear benchmark.

Despite a close call behind a Grove Mustang, Kostecki still went 1.855s faster than Erebus teammate Brown.

Brown trimmed the margin down to eight tenths, but remained the only driver within two and a half seconds of Kostecki.

James Golding took a risk and elected to stay out on his used wets, while the rest jumped to the Hard slick rubber on the drying track.

With the PremiAir car only able to get as high as seventh, he dived into the pits as the dry runners examined the grip level.

But just as they were about to go for it, a beached Reynolds cut short the session and left many frustrated figures in pit lane.

Race 6 qualifying

An inspired tyres call sent Broc Feeney to his maiden Supercars pole in a tense qualifying session that went down to the death at Albert Park.

With an ever-drying track, the times did not stop getting faster as the 12-minute session went on, but Feeney was better than the rest.

A decision to bolt on fresh tyres at the end ensured Feeney could jump from 22nd to first with a 1:47.7685.

Chaz Mostert and Will Brown emerged next best in the crazy finish with Andre Heimgartner, Bryce Fullwood and Jack Le Brocq all near the front as Brodie Kostecki slipped from first to 13th.

After a late red flag left Feeney “screaming” in frustration down in 22nd in race 5 qualifying, he was ecstatic to start Sunday’s race 6 from p1.

“The highs lows 22nd and then first, I was so fired up in between sessions,” Feeney said.

“I have been so close so many times, but massive credit to the team, the timing was perfect.

“I nearly sent it in the fence on the last lap, so they were crazy conditions.”

With the sun out and a drying track, all 25 cars went out on the SuperSoft Dunlop rubber.

Kostecki was at it again, being the only driver in the 1:53s window with Scott Pye and Mostert the nearest challengers after the first runs.

It was all action at Turn 12 as Thomas Randle went off before Brown was sandwiched between the fence and David Reynolds.

The result put Reynolds out of action with significant damage to the left front to complete a nightmare back to back qualifying.

As this drama unfolded, the times kept getting faster on the drying track with Mostert beating Kostecki by two tenths with a 1:51.2911.

By the next runs the cars were into the 1:49s’ with Kostecki back on top ahead of Waters and van Gisbergen by a tenth.

Courtney was fourth, but got a kerb strike on his penultimate lap as Tickford teammate Waters went half a second better.

Winterbottom was a big improver to get into the top three, while Feeney was down in 24th, but shot up to first with a scorcher.

Feeney was a second clear on fresh rubber, which proved decisive as Mostert, Brown and Andre Heimgartner gave their best, but fell short in a memorable qualifying.

The final two Supercars races will be held over 13 laps with the penultimate sprint taking place at 17.25 AEDT on Saturday. 

Race 5 Qualifying results

1 Brodie Kostecki  2:00.0824

2 William Brown +0.8063

3 Bryce Fullwood+2.6990

4 Anton de Pasquale +3.0119

5 Matthew Payne +3.3861

6 Will Davison +3.4007

7 James Golding+3.5175

8 Andre Heimgartner +3.5817

9 Mark Winterbottom +3.7080

10 Chaz Mostert +3.7326

11 Shane van Gisbergen +3.8243

12 Jack Smith +4.1028

13 Macauley Jones +4.2960

14 Tim Slade +4.8184

15 James Courtney +4.9867

16 Declan Fraser +5.2784

17 Jack Le Brocq +5.7761

18 Cameron Hill +5.8597

19 Thomas Randle +5.9659

20 Cameron Waters +6.8383

21 Broc Feeney +7.1216

22 Scott Pye +7.1587

23 Todd Hazelwood +7.3140

24 David Reynolds +8.5554

25 Nick Percat N/A

Race 6 Qualifying

1 Broc Feeney 1:47.7685

2 Chaz Mostert +0.1899

3 William Brown +0.3229

4 Andre Heimgartner +0.3986

5 Bryce Fullwood +0.4383

6 Jack Le Brocq +0.7061

7 Will Davison +0.8164

8 Matthew Payne +0.8710

9 Thomas Randle +0.8837

10 Scott Pye +0.8858

11 Mark Winterbottom +0.9019

12 Shane van Gisbergen +0.9367

13 Macauley Jones +0.9907

14 Brodie Kostecki +0.9971

15 Cameron Waters +1.0696

16 Nick Percat +1.1350

17 Anton de Pasquale+1.4998

18 Declan Fraser +1.5818

19 James Courtney +2.0290

20 Cameron Hill +2.0689

21 Todd Hazelwood +2.4566

22 James Golding +4.2750

23 Jack Smith +4.7266

24 Tim Slade +7.5939

25 David Reynolds N/A