V8 Supercars, Darwin Triple Crown 2019: Qualifying results as teammate crash and Scott McLaughlin takes provisional pole

Both Macauley Jones and Nick Percat went off at the same point on the track, almost simultaneously.
Both Macauley Jones and Nick Percat went off at the same point on the track, almost simultaneously.Source: FOX SPORTS
Jack Austin from Fox Sports

Scott McLaughlin flexed his muscles once again to take provisional pole for Race 16 ahead of the Top 10 Shootout with the fastest lap ever recorded by a Supercar around Hidden Valley.

The DJR Team Penske is still on for the Triple Crown but was put under threat by David Reynolds who had earlier posted the quickest time of the weekend to take P2 overall.

However, both Red Bull Holden cars will be absent for the Top 10 Shootout as Jamie Whincup could only manage P11 with Shane van Gisbergen in P16 as crashes to Brad Jones Racing teammates overshadowed the whole session.

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The session began with a red flag after Brad Jones Racing teammates Nick Percat and Macauley Jones simultaneously went into the tyre wall even though they didn’t make contact with each other.

Neither driver knew the reason why they went off but Percat, especially, faces a race against time to make Race 16 later on Sunday afternoon.

After a long delay as the track was cleared, Reynolds posted the first sub 1:06 second lap of the weekend to sit pretty at the top of the timesheets for the majority of the session.

That allowed Saturday’s third-place finisher to sit out the rest of the session and watch on knowing he was safely into the Top 10 Shootout.

And he would have watched Red Bull struggle with Van Gisbergen’s car again, as they have all weekend, as they changed the entire set up of the car during the session and only getting him out on track with one second to go to post a flying lap.

The 2016 champion managed to move up from 23rd to 16th but will not be happy with how his weekend has gone so far.

At the top of the timesheets however, as always, McLaughlin and DJR Team Penske left a bit more to give as the Kiwi posted the quickest ever lap by a Supercar on this track.

McLaughlin is in prime position to achieve the Darwin Triple Crown this weekend, needing only the Top 10 Shootout and Race 16 to complete the feat which has eluded every other driver in history.