RAIN or shine, Scott McLaughlin's DJR Team Penske Mustang is looking fine.
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McLaughlin put himself on provisional pole for the Bathurst 1000 after finishing top of the time sheets in a rain-affected qualifying session on Friday afternoon.
The Supercars championship leader spent the session duelling on the wet track with Tickford Racing's Chaz Mostert, the pair being a cut above the rest of the field in the challenging conditions.
His qualifying time of 2:27.6476 will see him go out last in Saturday's Top 10 Shootout.
It was another memorable day for McLaughlin who set another Mount Panorama practice-qualifying lap record of two minutes and 3.4813 seconds during a sunny practice session earlier in the day.
While happy to sit on provisional pole McLaughlin's hoping to have seen the last of a wet Mount Panorama track this round.
"I was pretty nervous because we haven't been that good in the wet previously," he said.
"We tuned up the car with various pressures to get a proper wet setup and it was great straight away.
"I was catching Chaz at the start, and he's normally a wizard in the wet, so I thought 'We're on here' and I just tried to be as safe as I could."
As teams took their time trying to find the ideal wet weather setup Mostert quickly found his way under the 2:30 barrier with a 2:29.9531 early in the session.
McLaughlin took top spot away from Mostert then bettered his own effort with a 2:28.1873.
Mostert kept the intensity of the top two battle going strong when he became the only other driver to join McLaughlin in the 2:28 club, posting a 2:28.0484.
The DJR Team Penske driver then got into the 2:27s with less than five minutes left in the session, and he wasn't going to be caught.
His teammate Fabian Coulthard (12th) was among the leading Bathurst 1000 hopes who failed to reach the top 10.
The 2017 winning Erebus Motorsport entry of David Reynolds and Luke Youlden have found themselves down in 22nd.
McLaughlin said taking provisional pole with the team's ownership structure in attendance was special.
"It's great for them to see everything first hand and see the progress that we've made with our wet car for the last six months. I think they're really happy with that," he said.
"Unfortunately, Fabs didn't get in the 10. He probably had a fast enough car to get there so we'll work on that car overnight."
Triple Eight Race Engineering's Shane van Gisbergen had plenty of adventures off the track during a wild qualifying session but came away with the third fastest time of 2:29.1880.
The remainder of the top 10 were all strung out across the 2:29s.
Will Davison (2:29.2431) and Tim Slade (2:29.3889) weren't far away from van Gisbergen.
Nick Percat (2:29.4619) enjoyed a great qualifying run, sitting in third for much of the session, but had to settle for sixth.
Jamie Whincup, Cam Waters and Mark Winterbottom all shot themselves into the shootout with clutch last lap performances while Anton de Pasquale completed the top 10.