The Red Bull Holden Racing Team Commodores will have to qualify for Sunday’s Supercars race on Phillip Island the hard way after both Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen bombed in practice.
The championship-winning pair struggled for pace and set-up on the Island and missed the top-10 cut-off to bypass the first stage of qualifying.
Whincup was 12th, an improved showing from Saturday, but van Gisbergen landed in 21st, ignoring media obligations to go straight into his truck after the disastrous session.
Whincup said his team “still haven’t found the right car” to suit the seaside circuit.
“We tried another five or six things and didn’t really find any gold unfortunately,” he said.
“There’s something fundamentally that’s not quite right with the car … there will be gold there somewhere we just can’t find it at this stage.”
As they’ve done all weekend, Mustangs were fastest, with Fabian Coulthard leading Saturday race winner Scott McLaughlin in the Sunday warm-up.
Cam Waters and Chaz Mostert were third and fourth, with James Golding a surprising fastest Holden.
Will Davison and Lee Holdsworth also made the top ten, ensuring every Ford in the championship can progress straight into Sunday’s second qualifying session.
Qualifying on Sunday begins at 11:10am AEST, before the grid is set for a 2:15pm race.
Overnight, three teams were docked 30 teams championship points for infringements in Saturday’s race.
DJR Team Penske were served a $6000 fine due to a brake lock mechanism failure, while Red Bull HRT and Irwin Racing will have to pay $5000 after losing wheels during the race.