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McLaughlin takes sixth-straight PI pole

22 Apr 2018
Shell Ford the class of the field on Sunday morning
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Highlights - Qualifying Race 10 2018 WD-40 Phillip Island 500

Scott McLaughlin extended his streak of ARMOR ALL Pole Positions at Phillip Island ahead of Race 10 of the Supercars season.

Saturday’s WD-40 Phillip Island 500 race winner was the class of ARMOR ALL Qualifying on Sunday morning, finishing four tenths clear of David Reynolds.

  • Click here for the full Race 10 grid

It means McLaughlin has taken the last six poles at the Victorian circuit, through qualifying sweeps in 2016, ’17 and ’18.

Following the penalty that dropped him from second to 14th in Saturday’s race, Jamie Whincup led early with a 1:30.6050s.

The Shell V-Power Racing Falcons did not set indicative times on their first runs, Fabian Coulthard going off at the Southern Loop.

McLaughlin went straight to the top with his first proper effort eight minutes in, his 1:30.2070s four tenths clear.

Michael Caruso, Whincup and Rick Kelly all trimmed that advantage back to two tenths by the time there was seven minutes left on the clock.

Reynolds then got within 0.0470 seconds of McLaughlin, before drivers set out for their final runs.

Inside the final minute, Whincup set the fastest time through the first sector, before McLaughlin blitzed the second and third.

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While Whincup did not improve, McLaughlin went on to record the session’s only sub-1:30s lap.

His 1:29.8526s was 0.4014s ahead of Reynolds, McLaughlin’s 37 career Supercars poles now including seven at Phillip Island.

Courtney flips Murphy the bird in pitlane

and then it’s completely different this morning.

“But the car’s fine, we just weren’t quick enough.”

Nick Percat missed the bulk of the session as Brad Jones Racing continued to work through the front-splitter issues that marred his Saturday race.

Percat finished at the foot of the times with an effectively-token 1:32.4937s.

“We only had one of the type of bar we ran yesterday and we destroyed that, so now we’ve got one of our old ones on and it’s a bigger problem than it was yesterday,” team owner Brad Jones said.

“I'm not sure what we'll do, but we’ll try and address it before the race.”

The 57-lap Race 10 of the 2018 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship starts at 1:50pm.

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