Dominant De Pasquale denies fairytale Brown pole

A rampant Anton De Pasquale has denied Will Brown and Erebus Motorsport a shock Race 20 pole in Sydney.

De Pasquale, the fast man in practice and qualifying, pieced together a staggering lap to claim his fifth pole of 2021.

Brown was the sixth driver out in the ARMOR ALL Top Ten Shootout, and demoted teammate Brodie Kostecki.

Tim Slade was first man out and clocked a 1:29.608s on used tyres.

From there, all drivers made gains on their qualifying times; Chaz Mostert went 0.3s quicker, Jamie Whincup 0.2s, and Kostecki 0.7s.

Nick Percat split the Erebus Commodores, with series leader Shane van Gisbergen only good enough for fourth after his lap.

With the Shell V-Power Racing Team Mustangs first and third, van Gisbergen dropped to sixth.

It was van Gisbergen’s worst qualifying effort since he qualified sixth for Race 17 in Townsville.

Davison was unable to unseat Brown, who with the Erebus crew, waited with bated breath for De Pasquale to circulate.

However, De Pasquale was in no mood to settle for second, clocking a 1:28.077s to claim a fifth career pole.

It was the Shell Ford squad’s eighth pole in its last 10 attempts at Sydney Motorsport Park.

De Pasquale denied Erebus a first pole since Townsville 2019.

It also prevented the first pole for a full-time rookie since Chris Pither at Queensland Raceway in 2016.

De Pasquale and Brown are well-placed for Saturday's night race; 10 of 12 night races in history have been won from the front row of the grid.

"It's handy," a coy De Pasquale said.

"The car's been in a good window straight out of the truck. It's probably the best we've rolled the car out all year.

"We're in a window where we can fine-tune it, and find little things at a time. As a driver, that helps confidence."

The 32-lap Race 20 will commence under lights at 7:10pm AEDT.