A huge error at turn one hasn’t stopped Bathurst 1000 favourite Brodie Kostecki from blitzing the field in Saturday’s top-10 shootout by a historically big margin.
The 25-year-old Erebus star smoked the other nine drivers by almost half a second, despite putting his right hand rear into the dirt at Mount Panorama’s first corner, recording a lightning fast 2:04.27 in the first ever top-10 shootout with Gen3 cars.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Brodie Kostecki smokes the field to take pole at Bathurst 1000.
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“He is in a league of his own. That is a very, very special lap. Almost half a second on the field,” Mark Skaife said after the lap.
He recovered from the mishap at turn one to record the fastest times comfortably in sectors two and three of the track.
“Had a bit of a crappy start to the lap, the sun got in my eyes … so made a mistake and had to make up for it,” Kostecki said.
Skaife said the early error “would’ve cost him two tenths of a second”.
“That’s the awe-inspiring thing; he’s beat the field by almost half a second with a big mistake at turn one,” he said.
Erebus team director George Commins had “emotion in his eyes” in the moments after the freakish lap.
Kostecki will start first on the grid in Sunday’s Great Race, next to Broc Feeney who was the second quickest.
Will Davison was the first to attack the 6213 metre track after recording the 10th fastest lap during qualifying on Friday.
The veteran’s chances at improving his position on the grid were over before they were even alive after a costly error at turn one saw his right hand rear dropped into the dirt.
Davison recovered reasonably well for the remainder of the lap to record a 2:06.41, but the damage was already done.
“I made a meal of the lap before it even started. I’ve been having a lot of braking issues heading into turn one,” he said after the lap.
“Pretty annoying because it actually felt pretty good otherwise.”
Chaz Mostert didn’t make the same mistake during his impressive lap of 2:05.83 that had him sitting in pole until Matt Payne snatched it off him just minutes later in the very next lap with a 2:05.26.
“This is a majestic piece of work,” Neil Crompton said of the youngster’s lap.
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Not to be outdone, two-time Bathurst 1000 champion Shane van Gisbergen raised the bar again with a 2:04.99 to confirm a fourth change in the provisional pole in as many laps.
Dave Reynolds ran van Gisbergen within two tenths of a second but couldn’t outdo the champion Kiwi, finishing with a 2:05.15.
Youngster Feeney followed Reynolds and stunned the field to cross the line in 2:04.75 — his quickest lap for the week.
“I’ve dreamed of doing laps like this all my life,” he said
Cam Waters fell just the barest of margins short of Feeney’s mark, missing out on top spot on the leaderboard by two one hundredths of a second with his 2:04.77.
Anton De Pasquale took P-3 with a 2:04.91, but had that spot taken from him by the man who followed him around the mountain, James Golding, who finished in 2:04.81.
Bathurst 1000 Top-10 shootout results
- Brodie Kostecki (Erebus)
- Broc Feeney (Red Bull Ampol)
- Cam Waters (Tickford)
- James Golding (PremiAir Racing)
- Anton De Pasquale (Shell V-Power)
- Shane van Gisbergen (Red Bull Ampol)
- David Reynolds (Grove Racing)
- Matt Payne (Grove Racing)
- Chaz Mostert (Walkinshaw Andretti United)
- Will Davison (Shell V-Power)
Seven’s broadcast of the highly anticipated final day at Mount Panorama starts from 7.30am AEDT Sunday on Channel 7 and 7plus.
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