Volvo sensation Scott McLaughlin bounced back from a horror outing on Saturday to score his second pole position of this weekend’s three-race V8 Supercars meet at Sydney Motorsport Park.

McLaughlin blitzed the field with a lap of 1min 29.71secs to start Sunday’s 200km feature on the front row, alongside Holden’s Fabian Coulthard.

Nick Percat was third fastest, ahead of fellow Holden driver James Courtney.

Despite starting both of Saturday’s wet and wild 100km races on the front row, McLaughlin failed to finish either of them – a power steering failure forcing his early exit in the first and a popped wheel in the second.

“I wanted to get that one so bad for the boys, to show that we’re still in this and having a good crack,” said McLaughlin, who now has seven poles this season.

“I got the lap pretty good, I don’t think I had anything left. So stoked.”

The session didn’t pan out well, however, for championship contender and Holden fan favourite Craig Lowndes.

The Red Bull Racing pilot ran off the track midway through qualifying and didn’t have enough time to repair damage to his front right guard.

He will start the round’s final race from last on the grid.

“I actually wasn’t that bad, it’s just that we had so much rain overnight we just could stop the car (from going into the barrier),” said a deflated Lowndes, currently third on the overall standings.

“Anyway … it’ll make for a good race.”

Lowndes’ teammate and series leader Jamie Whincup qualified in sixth, one spot ahead of yesterday’s double race winner Shane van Gisbergen.

Ford’s Mark Winterbottom, sitting 69 points behind Whincup in the championship, endured another poor outing and will start from 15th.

The weekend’s final race starts at 3.45pm (AEST).