Mostert last man standing in head-to-head qualifying battle
Bryce Fullwood has extra impetus to perform well at his team's home circuit at Winton, with Walkinshaw Andretti United teammate Chaz Mostert the last man standing in the 2021 qualifying head-to-head battle.
Heading to the third round at Symmons Plains, only Mostert, Tickford Racing’s Cameron Waters and Team 18’s Mark Winterbottom had out-qualified their teammates.
Four rounds in: chasing the ARMOR ALL Pole Champion Award
Four perfect, six fails: 2021's best and worst qualifiers
Scott Pye ended Winterbottom’s run at the first chance of asking, qualifying sixth to his teammate’s eighth for Race 6.
James Courtney then ended Waters’ run at the following event at The Bend Motorsport Park, again in the first qualifying session of the weekend.
Waters, who won the OTR SuperSprint finale on the Sunday, could only qualify seventh for Race 9, which was won by Andre Heimgartner.
2010 series champion Courtney qualified fifth, two places above Waters, to be the lead Tickford Mustang of the trio, which also includes Jack Le Brocq.
WATCH: SEVEN HIGHS AND LOWS FROM WINTON
Mostert has qualified no lower than 10th through 11 races in 2021, and took an ARMOR ALL Pole Position at Sandown.
Fullwood, conversely, only qualified in the top 10 for the first time in the Tailem Bend finale.
Fullwood’s qualifying average of 15.8 pales in comparison to Mostert’s 4.6, which is second only to Waters’ 3.5.
Only Waters, Mostert, and Shell V-Power Racing Team duo Will Davison and Anton De Pasquale have scored top 10 starting spots for each race so far this season.
Of the quartet, only Mostert has scored a pole at the next venue on the 2021 tour, Winton Motor Raceway.
In fact, in 32 previous visits to Winton, only Scott McLaughlin (six pole positions) has more poles at Winton than Mostert (five).
Mostert took pole for the Saturday race in 2019, which featured a high-profile collision between McLaughlin and teammate Fabian Coulthard.
It ended a four-race run of Winton poles for McLaughlin dating back to Saturday 2017.
In 38 previous qualifying efforts dating back to their first event as teammates last year, Fullwood has only out-qualified Mostert five times; twice in Sydney, twice in Townsville, and once at The Bend.
Fullwood will have three ARMOR ALL Qualifying sessions at Winton to prevent Mostert from extending his unbeaten run in 2021 to 14.
The Repco Supercars Championship field will return to Victoria for the Winton SuperSprint across May 28-30. Tickets are available here.
The event will be broadcast live on Foxtel and will be streamed on Kayo with highlights on 7 and 7 Plus. Check out the weekend schedule here.
