Whincup on provisional pole, Mostert misses out again

Jamie Whincup has scored provisional Race 16 pole at the NTI Townsville 500 as title rival Chaz Mostert again missed the top 10.

Whincup shot to the top with six minutes remaining in the 20-minute session with a 1:12.019s, which was the fastest time of the weekend.

Such was Whincup's confidence, that he got out of his car before the chequered flag flew.

The big shock of the session was again Chaz Mostert, who is Whincup's primary title rival.

Mostert, who slumped to 17th in Saturday qualifying and was only 14th in the race, was bumped to 12th at the death, and again missed a Top Ten Shootout berth.

Series leader Shane van Gisbergen, who defeated Whincup in Saturday's Race 15, was just 0.0058s behind his teammate.

Cameron Waters, who was a lowly eighth in Saturday's race, found pace in his #6 Monster Energy Tickford Mustang to hit the front with a 1:12.164s flyer.

However, he was immediately displaced by Whincup, who will roll out in the afternoon shootout aiming for a 90th career ARMOR ALL Pole Position.

Erebus Motorsport rookie Will Brown impressed to fourth, 0.2s down on Whincup's time, with Saturday podium finisher Anton De Pasquale fifth.

Friday pace-setter David Reynolds, who finished fifth on Saturday, was sixth ahead of Nick Percat and Will Davison, with Todd Hazelwood and Tim Slade rounding out the top 10.

Macauley Jones missed a shootout berth by a mere 0.05s, wth Mostert just 0.018s behind.

Cars will return to the track for the ARMOR ALL Top Ten Shootout at 12:05pm AEST, which will set the grid for Race 16.

The 88-lap, 250km race will commence at 2:45pm AEST.