Van Gisbergen’s remarkable pole lap for Saturday’s Race 6 sprint, a 50.492s, dipped below two familiar names.
The championship leader not only broke Craig Lowndes’ 50.579s qualifying record from 2019, but dipped below Jamie Whincup’s practice/qualifying 50.508s marker set in 2019 practice.
Hot times across the weekend were set predominantly in two sessions, being qualifying for Race 8, and Saturday’s 44-lap Race 6 sprint.
Van Gisbergen’s razing run to Race 6 pole aside, six of the top 10 quickest practice/qualifying laps of the weekend were set in the final qualifying session of the weekend.
The event featured an all-new split qualifying format, which defined the Sunday afternoon race’s grid; seven of the top 10 qualifiers for Race 8 ran in the first group of the split session.
However, it was Saturday’s Race 6 which proved the most definitive with regards to pace; 18 of the top 20 quickest race laps were logged in the race, which was won by van Gisbergen.
Saturday’s Race 6 and Sunday’s Race 8, which was won by Chaz Mostert, both commenced in cooler conditions at 4:25pm local time, with Race 7 starting at 1:35pm.
The seven-time champion’s 51.498s flyer, set on the fifth lap of the race as he chased van Gisbergen and Cameron Waters, was the fastest race lap of the weekend.
However, it fell short of Mark Winterbottom’s race lap record of a 51.227s, which the Team 18 driver set early in the Sunday race in 2019.
The Repco Supercars Championship field will return to The Bend Motorsport Park for the OTR SuperSprint across May 8-9.
The event will be broadcast live on Foxtel and will be streamed on Kayo with highlights on 7 and 7 Plus.
Fastest practice/qualifying laps
Session
Driver
Time
Q6 (Q3)
Shane van Gisbergen
50.492
Q8
Cameron Waters
50.562
Q8
Chaz Mostert
50.580
Q8
Anton De Pasquale
50.670
Q8
Zane Goddard
50.693
Q8
Jamie Whincup
50.714
Q8
Shane van Gisbergen
50.716
P2
Cameron Waters
50.724
P2
Anton De Pasquale
50.745
Q6 (Q1)
Shane van Gisbergen
50.748
Fastest race laps
Session
Driver
Time
R6
Jamie Whincup
51.498 (lap 5)
R6
Chaz Mostert
51.507 (lap 24)
R6
Shane van Gisbergen
51.538 (lap 3)
R6
Scott Pye
51.572 (lap 35)
R6
Will Davison
51.601 (lap 6)
R6
James Courtney
51.603 (lap 30)
R6
Cameron Waters
51.629 (lap 8)
R6
Anton De Pasquale
51.707 (lap 4)
R6
Fabian Coulthard
51.726 (lap 34)
R6
Mark Winterbottom
51.755 (lap 4)
Key: Practice (P); Qualifying (Q); Top Ten Shootout (TT); Race (R)