Van Gisbergen on track at Auckland

Shane van Gisbergen’s relentless march towards his first Supercars championship has continued in qualifying at Pukekohe Park.

He’ll start from pole position in Sunday’s earlier race and from second place in the later 100km sprint after another sensational effort at his home circuit.

The Aucklander missed out on a clean sweep of pole positions for the weekend by one hundredth of a second to his teammate and title rival Jamie Whincup, but that won’t bother the 27-year-old.

A solid gap of 148 points between the pair, with just 450 points left to fight for in the series, has van Gisbergen in control of the title race.

More significantly, Whincup will start from the third row after qualifying fifth for the first race on Sunday, allowing van Gisbergen to run up a greater lead on the way to Homebush.

The greatest threat to van Gisbergen’s title bid could be the weather, with clouds and rain heading towards the racetrack on Sunday afternoon.

DJR Team Penske will also be confident of their best result since entering the series last year after both drivers Scott Pye and Fabian Coulthard qualified in second and third for the first race.

Pye was pipped by the dominant No.97 car by just seven-thousandths of a second for the $1000 pole position prize.

Scott McLaughlin was also a force in qualifying as he attempts to haul in Craig Lowndes for third place in the championship race, and will start from third in the second race on Sunday.

Sunday’s races commence at 12:25 and 2:45pm (AEDT).

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