Anton De Pasquale has got his Supercars finals campaign off to a sizzling start by snagging provisional pole ahead of the opening race of the Gold Coast 500.
De Pasquale will be the last driver to have a solo attempt in the top-10 shootout after claiming the fastest lap in one minute and 9.077 seconds ahead of Saturday afternoon's 85-lap, 250km race at the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit.
The result comes after the Team 18 star had a gut-wrenching end to his Bathurst 1000 campaign when he ran out of fuel on the last lap and surrendered the lead.
But while De Pasquale shone, Matt Stone Racing's Jack Le Brocq suffered a huge blow to his championship hopes after finishing 17th on Friday.
Le Brocq currently sits 10th in the overall standings.
By the end of the weekend only seven drivers will remain, with the bottom three racers of the top 10 who fail to win on the Gold Coast eliminated from securing the title.
In a bigger shock, Brodie Kostecki will start 11th on the grid despite winning his second Bathurst 1000 last time out.
Kostecki endured a horror weekend at 2025's Gold Coast 500, when the Dick Johnson Racing star clipped a tyre bundle at turn one and smashed into concrete barriers, hospitalising four trackside photographers.
Triple Eight Race Engineering's Broc Feeney came second, with championship leader Matt Payne in third after dealing with power steering issues in practice.
Non-finalist Andre Heimgartner was fourth, with last year's champion Chaz Mostert, Kiwi Ryan Wood and Triple Eight's Will Brown fifth, sixth and seventh respectively.
Brown's finish came after he had an engine transformation between the two practice sessions, while in qualifying he veered off the track at one point.
Another non-finalist, Thomas Randle, qualified in eighth, while Grove Racing's Kai Allen and Tickford Racing's Cam Waters rounded out the top 10.
The Gold Coast 500 is the opening round of the finals series, and drivers will return for the shootout on Saturday at 12.35pm local time to determine the final grid ahead of Race 31 at 3.15pm.