On day one of the Supercars' season opener, Shell V-Power Racing recruit De Pasquale was off the pace in his Ford Mustang.

But the outfit which won last year's teams championship worked on his car overnight and on Saturday morning De Pasquale found the speed he wanted.

His seventh lap - a 2:04.4250 - saw him top the time sheet and earn a spot in the top 10 shootout ahead of the first 250 kilometre race of the round.

"You're learning, learning, learning, we struggled a little bit yesterday, but obviously big effort over night," De Pasquale said.

"The car is a bit more to my liking, we did a better job and sort chipped away. As the session went on I was pretty aggressive with it and here we are."

It was the man who won last year's Bathurst 1000, Shane van Gisbergen, who went to the top of the time sheet early in qualifying as he clocked a 2:04.7580 on his second lap of the circuit in his #97 Red Bull Ampol Racing Commodore.

Brad Jones Racing's Nick Percat didn't make it as far as lap two. He had issues on his out lap, limped it back to the lane, then his car stopped at pit exit, seeing the session momentarily red flagged.

"I think it's had an electrical issue, as soon as I came down Conrod it dropped to six cylinders, then four, then three then shut off and I had battery alarms and no voltage and stuff like that going off," Percat said.

Having topped both practice sessions on Thursday, Chaz Mostert's #25 Commodore and the entry of his Walkinshaw Andretti United team-mate Bryce Fullwood sat in pit lane in the opening minutes of the session.

But Mostert was soon on the pace after heading out on track, peeling off a 2:04.833 on his third lap to move up to second spot at that point.

As the session ticked inside the final two minutes, the leaderboard read van Gisbergen, Mostert, De Pasquale, Scott Pye, James Courtney, Cameron Waters, Fullwood, Will Davison, Jamie Whincup and David Reynolds.

But the times dropped as the battle for a spot in the top 10 shootout heated up.

It was De Pasquale went to the top to take provisional pole with a 2:04.4250, his first sector split quicker than any other driver.

READ MORE: Mostert tops both of Friday's Bathurst 500 practice sessions

READ MORE: James Courtney on the hunt for his first Supercars win since 2016

READ MORE: Todd Hazelwood's ambition is to find greater consistency in 2021

Van Gisbergen's 2:04.5474 kept him in second, 0.1224 behind De Pasquale, with Tickford Racing's Waters getting into third with a 2:04.5871.

"I thought it was going to be a little bit quicker than what it was yesterday, but the car's going okay," Waters said.

"I had a little brush of the fence on the first set of tyres which woke me up a bit, but so far, so good.

"It feels really comfortable over the top and down the hill, that's good in the race when you've got to do that lap after lap, but we've still got to work on getting to the bottom end of the mountain a little bit."

Mostert and Tim Slade, who has returned to a full-time seat in 2021 after sitting out last season, rounded out the top five in the qualifying.

"It was pretty tricky there, we just did one lap at the start and then we didn't get our middle run in and sort of ran out of time," Slade, who did a 2:04.78, said.

"So we had to do it, but it was a bit ballsy doing just one lap at the end ... massive credit to all the guys in the Blanchard family for putting together this amazing operation in such a short period of time."

Also booking a spot in the top 10 shootout were Erebus rookie Brodie Kostecki, Shell V-Power Racing's Davison, Team 18 duo Pye and Mark Winterbottom plus Red Bull Ampol Racing's Whincup.

After a big crash in practice on Friday, Erebus managed to repair Will Brown's car in time for him to take part in Saturday morning's qualifying session.

He managed 17^th with a 2:05.4340, but importantly he will be on the grid for the first of the 250 kilometre races on Saturday afternoon after initially fearing his weekend was over after Friday's crash.

The top 10 shootout is set for 12.10pm this afternoon.