Van der Linde claimed the Allan Simonsen pole position trophy in his Team WRT BMW with a time of 2:01.981, beating four Mercedes rivals to the top spot during the day's second shoot out session.

Triple Eight Race Engineering's Broc Feeney had to settle for the runner-up spot on the grid for the second year running while last year's pole sitter Maro Engel finished third in his GruppeM Mercedes.

Matt Campbell - who topped the first shoot out session - was fourth overall in his Porsche 911 GT3 R while Luca Stolz, driving the defending champion Sun1Energy Racing Mercedes entry, rounded out the top five.

Feeney had come into the shoot out with the fastest time in qualifying (2:01.8911) but couldn't match that effort in the warmer conditions.

Van der Linde is the first South African to take pole position in a Mount Panorama race.

"It's a dream come true. It's my second year here, and I didn't expect to be going for it this year. The car has been good but we didn't think that we had that edge," van der Linde said.

"Me and [co-driver] Dries [Vanthoor] did rock-paper-scissors before qualifying to see who would do it."

The WRT BMW took the pole position after completing just three flying laps in the shoot out.

"There's such a big peak on this tyre that you can only really do the one lap, especially on the BMW. The rear traction dropped quite a lot on that second lap," van der Linde said.

"I went off on the second push when I tried to drive too hard. I don't think I would have improved that lap. It was really good and it felt great."

Sheldon van der Linde's brother Kelvin threw down the first major shot of the opening qualifying session when he went 2:02.827 nearly halfway into the 15-minute window.

Maxime Martin and Campbell each took slight excursions off the track but stayed away from any walls as they tried to get everything they could out of their cars.

Feller laid down an improvement in the closing stages, posting a 2:02.660 lap, before Campbell swept in with a 2:02.425 in his last lap of the session.

Those times were quickly bettered by Sheldon van der Linde in the second session, when he became the first driver of the shoot out to go below the 2:02 mark.

None of the four Mercedes entries taking part in the second session would be able to do the same.

It's the second time a BMW driver has claimed the Allan Simonsen pole position, following Chaz Mostert's effort in the Schnitzer Motorsport M6 back in 2018.

Feeney said that although it was disappointing to once again narrowly miss out on a Bathurst 12 Hour pole he was still pleased by his efforts throughout Saturday's qualifying sessions.

"It's second at the 12 Hour last year, the Bathurst 1000 and now second again. It's still a great spot to be," he said.

"Everyone was really excited after qualifying. I was trying to calm everyone down though because there was still one session to go.

"A shoot out in these cars around here is the craziest thing I've ever got to do in a race car. It's so much fun and I can't believe how quick you go across the top."