De Pasquale, Whincup split Sunday Sydney poles

Anton De Pasquale and Jamie Whincup have split the Sunday poles at the BP Ultimate Sydney SuperNight.

De Pasquale sauntered to the Race 27 pole, which helped the Shell V-Power Racing Team driver clinch the 2021 ARMOR ALL Pole Champion Award.

However, being stuck in traffic hampered De Pasquale's Race 28 effort, with Whincup posting the only 1:28s lap of the day.

Series leader Shane van Gisbergen helped Red Bull Ampol Racing set a Race 28 front row lockout, just minutes after the Shell Ford squad did the same for Race 27.

However, van Gisbergen was investigated and later penalised for impeding Jack Le Brocq in the first session. 

Under overcast skies, cars rolled out on Sunday morning for the first of the two 10-minute sessions.

Nick Percat clocked a 1:30.652s ahead of Jake Kostecki, who was the only driver to roll out of pit lane on green tyres.

The field returned for a final flyer and it was De Pasquale who again blew his rivals out of the water.

De Pasquale's 1:29.201s proved 0.257s quicker than Will Davison, with the duo forming a Shell V-Power Racing Team front row lockout for Race 27.

Will Brown split the two Red Bull Ampol Racing entries, with Whincup third and van Gisbergen fifth.

It marked the second session running that Whincup had outqualified van Gisbergen, who was 0.587s down on De Pasquale.

Mark Winterbottom qualified sixth, which marked the Team 18 driver's best qualifying performance since he qualified fourth in Darwin.

It was Winterbottom's second top 10 qualifying result in 13 starts dating back to June's Hidden Valley event.

Teammate Scott Pye was eighth, behind Chaz Mostert and ahead of Brodie Kostecki. Percat was 10th, 0.901s off the pole-winning pace.

Cameron Waters qualified 12th in his repaired #6 Monster Energy Mustang, which was damaged in a Race 26 collision with Tickford teammate Le Brocq.

After a short break, cars returned to the track to set the grid for Race 28.

As darker clouds enveloped Sydney Motorsport Park, Brown dropped in a 1:29.207s, which would have been good enough for a front row berth for Race 27.

Brown's time was 0.540s quicker than the time he set to qualify fourth for the day's first race.

Waters found pace in his car and fired in a 1:29.451s, which proved 0.7s quicker than his Race 27 session effort.

The balance of the field returned to the track with four minutes remaining for a single time attack.

De Pasquale was buried in traffic ahead of his final flyer, with the two Red Bull Ampol Racing entries released in clean air.

Brown watched on in the Erebus Motorsport garage as Whincup and van Gisbergen unseated his time.

De Pasquale found a gap in traffic, but missed out on the front row by 0.017s.

Mostert and Waters ended up fifth and sixth, with Kostecki, Percat, Pye and Le Brocq rounding out the top 10.

Whincup, who claimed his 92nd career pole and first since Townsville, set the only 1:28s lap of either session.

"We maximised our set-up and it was interesting [because] car #11 decided to go in the pack and maybe got a little held up," Whincup said.

"We just stuck to our guns, went out, clean air in front and happy days.

"It was just all about maximising me... it’s a driver’s track, you have got to nail every corner really right.

“I made a bit of a gain after the first one, so the car was good."

Cars will return to the track for Race 27 at 1:50pm AEDT, followed by Race 28 at 4:45pm.