Scott McLaughlin rounds the fastest lap ever at Mount Panorama

The V8 Supercars Championship leader Scott McLaughlin scored his first Bathurst 1000 pole position in a career today and he did it in a style, smashing Greg Murphy’s lap record at Mount Panorama. In the Top 10 Shootout, McLaughlin produced a new ‘lap of the Gods’ in the #17 Shell Ford Falcon, rounding the 6.2 km circuit for 2 minutes and 3.8312 seconds.

In Friday’s qualifying, McLaughlin was the fastest with a lap time of 2:04.2253s, ahead of Erebus Motorsport’s David Reynolds. In the Top 10 Shootout, Reynolds was the fastest in the #9 Holden (2:04.2746s) before McLaughlin came out to the track and made a historic result.

Greg Murphy and Scott McLaughlin – old and new record holder

“I’ve dreamed of doing this since I was a little kid. That’s the most incredible moment of my life,” said Scott McLaughlin. A pole position at Mount Panorama is his 14th pole of the season. Tomorrow in the race, he will share the #17 Ford with Alex Premat.

Prodrive duo Mark Winterbottom and Chaz Mostert will share the second row. Red Bull Holden’s Shane van Gisbergen will start fifth, sharing the third row with Cameron Waters (Prodrive Ford).

DJR Team Penske’s Fabian Coulthard dropped from sixth in qualifying to seventh after the Shootout. Jason Bright (Britek Motorsport) and Garth Tander (Garry Rogers Motorsport) improved one spot each over their qualifying efforts to be eighth and ninth respectively, while James Courtney (Walkinshaw Racing) dropped to 10th.