De Pasquale dominates Race 8 qualifying

Anton De Pasquale has beaten Shell V-Power Racing Team teammate Will Davison to Race 8 pole.

De Pasquale and Davison gapped the field at Albert Park; third-placed Shane van Gisbergen was 0.58s off the pace.

David Reynolds continued his strong form with fourth ahead of Tim Slade and James Courtney.

Davison later denied De Pasquale a Friday pole sweep, with the duo forming dual Shell Ford front row lockouts.

“We felt good on the Hard tyre yesterday,” De Pasquale said.

“That tyre works really well, but the race will be won on the Soft.

“We've got a bit of work to do.”

It marked De Pasquale's second pole of 2022, and first at Albert Park.

The eight-minute session was the first of two Friday qualifying hit outs to be run on the Hard tyre.

Courtney set the early pace on a 1:47.193s, and improved to a 1:46.750s.

The times began to fall as the session wore on, with van Gisbergen setting a 1:46.383s benchmark.

However, the two Shell Fords turned up the wick; De Pasquale fired in a 1:45.803s, with Davison slotting into second.

Such was De Pasquale’s pace that just six other cars were within a second of the #11 Mustang.

The session ran uninterrupted, although a number of drivers still found trouble.

Notably, Todd Hazelwood brushed the Turn 5 barriers, with Chris Pither running long at Turn 1.

Hazelwood was still good enough for ninth behind Chaz Mostert and Broc Feeney.

Mark Winterbottom rounded out the top 10 denying Cam Waters a top 10 grid slot for the race.

Race 8 will be held on Saturday at 2:20pm AEST.

Cars will take to Albert Park for Race 6 at 2:20pm AEST.