Courtney claims day's first pole

Holden Racing Team star James Courtney has taken a step toward ending his Darwin drought, claiming ARMOR ALL Pole Position for the first of today's two races.

The first qualifying session at the SKYCITY Triple Crown was completed on the Dunlop hard tyre, and while times rolled at the end and top competitors Red Bull and Prodrive attacked, it was Courtney who topped his rivals tostart from P1 after recording a 1min07.119 lap around the Hidden Valley circuit.

It's the HRT driver's second pole position at the Darwin track, having also started from P1 in 2013 before an engine failure mid-race.

"The car was quite good this morning - good to back it up with that. But we've got a long way to go yet," Courtney said.

His time was just 0.0295sec quicker than Chaz Mostert, who has been the form qualifierfor the past two rounds.

Mostert admitted he missed a couple of braking markers on his first run and seemed surprised his PRA stablemates Mark Winterbottom and David Reynolds hadn't placed ahead of him.

On the second row it's Jamie Whincup and Fabian Coulthard, who are both entrenched in the title fight.

Shane van Gisbergen and Winterbottom follow, with the two Nissans of Rick Kelly and James Moffat seventh and eighth.

Craig Lowndes and Tim Slade rounded out the top 10.

Others to note include yesterday's fast man David Reynolds 12th, Volvo's Scott McLaughlin 14th, Garth Tander 15th after issues with his Commodore this morning, and the first Erebus E63 Will Davison in 21st.

Click here for full results.

The second qualifying session on soft tyres is minutes away.