Sydney Supercars: De Pasquale storms to season-first pole

The Dick Johnson Racing was rapid in the single-lap dash for pole, converting his provisional pole to the real deal with ease.

His 1m29.359s left him just under two-tenths clear of Shane van Gisbergen, who will start from the outside of the front row.

“It’s always a good place to start the first race of there year,” said De Pasquale.

“We’ll see how the 300 [kilometres] go later tonight. It’s going to be a cool race, I’m looking forward to it.

“The track is a lot different to what we’re used to seeing here, with the rivers and the rain and all that kind of stuff. We just rolled out today, gave it our best and the guys delivered me an awesome car.”

Van Gisbergen, meanwhile, said he was happy with his lap, even if he lacks a bit of car speed to De Pasquale.

“That was one of the best laps I’ve ever done around here. I even did a little fist bump,” said the Kiwi.

“But Anton and Ludo [Lacroix’s] set-up, they are just awesome here, since the Scotty [McLaughlin] days.

“I felt we got better but it’s still that annoying two-tenths.”

Tim Slade was the biggest mover in the Shootout, turning eighth in qualifying into a fin third on the grid.

He’ll be joined on the second row by Andre Heimgartner, those two split by less than a hundredth of a second.

Will Brown was fifth fastest, while Will Davison went backwards by four spots after locking his rear brakes at the hairpin.

“It was quite loose in the rear but the car was capable of dong a good time,” said a dejected Davison on his cool-down lap. “I did a pretty awful job.”

Brodie Kostecki was seventh fastest ahead of Chaz Mostert, David Reynolds and Broc Feeney.