Scott McLaughlin has put half a second between his Mustang and the rest of the Supercars field in qualifying at Phillip Island.
The master qualifier won his seventh straight Phillip Island pole position in supreme style on Saturday, which was a day of Ford domination.
The 25-year-old will be joined on the front row on the grid by teammate Fabian Coulthard, with no Holdens among the fastest seven cars.
While Nissan’s Andre Heimgartner managed to qualify fourth and Rick Kelly placed sixth, the fastest Commodore was Scott Pye in eighth.
Holden flag-bearer Jamie Whincup epitomised the Commodore’s woes, failing to make the second session of qualifying and will start 17th on the grid.
Speaking after his first glance at the timing charts, Kelly looked aghast at the gap McLaughlin had put between himself and the field.
« There’s six-tenths of a second between first and second place. Scotty McLaughlin is in a league of his own, » he said.
The Kiwi destroyer admitted he had « an awesome car », finishing his qualifying stint early with no need to lay down a faster time.
« I said I don’t want to go out again because that is literally the fastest I can go, » he said.
« Really happy with a 29.2 … a front row lockup for all of us at Shell V-Power Racing. We’ll push on for the race. »
After Fords claimed the opening six races of the season, Supercars officials shifted the centre of gravity in the Mustang in the hope of bringing them back to the pack.
By the looks of the results so far this weekend, the Ford fleet will need to be docked further to avoid a runaway championship win for McLaughlin and DJR Team Penske.
Whincup, one of his chief title rivals, was crestfallen to be so far back on the grid.
« I can’t remember a car with so little grip. I’d have to go back 15 years I reckon, » he said.
« We’re really struggling this weekend … no performance. What do you do? You’ve just got to keep working.
« Our car is very very slow. »
http://www.espn.com/v8-supercars/story/_/id/26502720/mclaughlin-chalks-phillip-island-pole
