Just 0.016s in it: Waters claims first pole since Tasmania

Cameron Waters has claimed a fourth ARMOR ALL Pole Position of 2021 with a clutch effort in Race 19 qualifying.

The margin to Shane van Gisbergen, just 0.016s, was the tightest of the season to date.

Van Gisbergen will launch from second in both Sunday races, having qualified alongside teammate Jamie Whincup for Race 18.

The balance of the field opted to do one run in the 10-minute session, and it was Saturday winner Waters who proved top of the pops.

The Tickford Racing driver, who previously claimed a Townsville pole in 2019, fired in a 1:12.814s lap with 44 seconds remaining.

He displaced van Gisbergen's 1:12.830s, with Anton De Pasquale slotting in behind the series leader.

It was a marked improvement for De Pasquale, who was a lowly 14th in the earlier session.

Chaz Mostert was on the opposite end of the scale; he could only qualify 12th, despite being the last car on the circuit.

Mostert will launch from the second row for Race 18, having qualified third behind Whincup and van Gisbergen.

"Probably didn't do the best job in qual one this morning," Waters said.

"Tuner her up for qual two and managed to get pole.

"I think our race car's pretty damn good at the moment, we could still make it a little bit better.

"We're continuing to learn with what we've done."

Race 18 pole man Whincup was 0.209s down in sixth, behind Davison in fourth and Todd Hazelwood in fifth.

David Reynolds backed up his fifth in Race 18 qualifying to line up seventh ahead of Macauley Jones, who impressed to eighth.

It was Jones's best qualifying of the season, bettering his ninth for the Darwin finale last month.

The 39-lap Race 18 will commence at 12:45pm AEST, ahead of Race 19 at 3:40pm.