Waters excels as Brown sneaks in
By Thomas Miles
Date posted: 23 February 2025
Will Brown has made the Top 10 Shootout by the skin the of his teeth as Cameron Waters continued his Sydney dominance.
Waters topped provisional qualifying with a 1:29.2080 as the Green-Eyed Monster remained the benchmark, while Will Brown battled in Race 2 Qualifying at SMP.
Brown sat 17th in the closing stages of Q2, but both he and Jack Le Brocq pulled off last-ditch laps to sneak their way into the 10.
The #1 did it by a meagre by just 0.0018s, joining Broc Feeney, Brodie Kostecki, Chaz Mostert, Matt Payne, James Golding, Will Davison and David Reynolds.
Q1
Anton De Pasquale flew in Q1. Image: Mark Horsburgh
Although there were only seven cars getting knocked out, Q1 was intense with the session not decided until the very end.
Brown and Heimgartner boxed early, but the rest pressed on at the soonest opportunity and there was no need to guess who shot out of the gates.
Yet again Waters was in a league of his own, with his 1:29.6174 more than three tenths clear of the rest.
Kostecki and Le Brocq started strong to win a much tighter battle for best of the rest honours, while the only big name that had done a lap in the drop zone was Payne.
However, Payne, Brown and Heimgartner all ensured they were safe by executing their only flying laps.
The BJR Kiwi suffered the most nervous wait, dropping down to 16th as the heat was on and numerous drivers made big jumps.
The likes of Brown, Payne, Allen, Fullwood, Davison and Randle all made late moves to leap up the leaderboard and into safety.
But the biggest gain was made by De Pasquale, who fired a 1:29.4172 at the death to top the session by 0.0999s ahead of Brown.
Team 18 bookended the progress places with David Reynolds scrapping through to safety in 18th by the skin of his teeth.
PremiAir was forced to regret the call to pit Stanaway as the #62 dropped to 23rd.
He was joined by Jaxon Evans, James Courtney, Macauley Jones, Cooper Murray, Aaron Love and Cameron Crick in the knockout zone.
Q2
The pressure was on Will Brown. Image: Mark Horsburgh
With only 10 spots on the line, everyone was on it, but unlike Saturday some drivers got two bites at the cherry.
Golding fired the fastest first sector, but only managed fifth as Waters returned to his familiar spot of P1 with a 1:29.2080.
However, his margin was much smaller on this occasion being just 0.092s ahead of Feeney, Kostecki and Mostert.
Brown battled and was only 17th after his opening lap.
With everyone returning to the lane the Supercars TV broadcast thought it was over and the reigning champion was consigned to a low grid start as they displayed the session results with two minutes still on the clock.
However, the session was far from over as both Le Brocq and Brown snuck back onto the track for last ditch efforts to make the 10 and ride from the bottom of the top 18.
It worked as Le Brocq rose from 18th to fourth and Brown made snuck in, stealing 10th spot from Reynolds by just 0.0018s.
The Top 10 Shootout will decide pole at 13.05 AEDT.
Main image: DMAC Photography
2025 Supercars Round 1 Sydney 500 Race 3 Qualifying results
2025 Sydney 500
Practice 1: A. De Pasquale 1:30.0226 2: D. Reynolds +0.4742 3: J. Courtney +0.5039
Qualifying 1: C. Waters 1:28.6968 2: B. Feeney +0.2544 3: M. Payne +0.4559
Race 1: C. Waters 2: C. Mostert 3: T. Randle
Qualifying: 1 C. Waters 1:28.8998 2: B. Feeney +0.2187 3: M. Payne +0.4045
Shootout: 1 C. Waters 1:29.1362 2: B. Feeney 1:29.3630 3: C. Mostert 1:29.3997
Race 2: C. Waters 2: B. Feeney +0.0308 3: W. Brown +0.1996
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