Mostert and King make an Audi front row at Phillip Island

Chaz Mostert dominated the qualifying for TCR Australia’s second event of the season at Phillip Island. Mostert drove his Audi RS 3 LMS run by the Melbourne Performance Centre to claim pole position with a couple of stunning lap times in Q2. His rookie teammate Luke King qualified second, completing an Audi front row for Race 1.
The Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce cars of Lee Holdsworth (Ashley Seward Motorsport) and Michael Caruso (Garry Rogers Motorsport) locked the second row, while Ben Bargwanna (GRM Customer Racing, Peugeot 308) and John Martin (Wall Racing, Honda Civic Type R) qualified fifth and sixth respectively.
In Q1, Mostart set the early pace with a lap of 1:36.5266, but Nathan Morcom (HMO Customer Racing, Hyundai i30 N) ended on top, as he was clocked at 1:36.1327. Mostart improved to 1:36.1424 to be placed second ahead of King (1:36.4402), Tony D’Alberto (Wall Racing, Honda Civic Type R, 1:36.5716) and Holdsworth (1:36.5755).
The top ten were rounded off by Aaron Cameron, Josh Buchan, Martin, Ben Bargwanna and Caruso. Dylan O’Keeffe (Garry Rogers Motorsport, Renault Mégane RS) was the first who did not make the cut for Q2, being four hundredths slower than Caruso, while the championship leader Jordan Cox (Garry Rogers Motorsport, Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce) was a disappointed 15^th.
In Q2, Holdsworth tried his best to repeat his pole position performance from the previous event at Symmons Plains, setting two consecutive provisional fastest laps of 1:36.1505 and 1:36.0996. However, Mostart smashed the record twice clocking 1:35.7318 on his third lap and improving to 1:35.6708 in the following lap.
In the dying moments of the session, King climbed to second with a lap of 1:35.9501 and Caruso moved up to fourth.
Race 1 will start at 14:25 local time (04:25 CET); live streaming at www.tcr-series.com. 

Phillip Island - Qualifying
1:35.6708 Chaz Mostert (Melbourne Performance Centre, Audi RS 3 LMS)
1:35.9501 Luke King (Melbourne Performance Centre, Audi RS 3 LMS)
1:36.0996 Lee Holdsworth (Ashley Seward Motorsport, Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce)
1:36.2468 Michael Caruso (Garry Rogers Motorsport, Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce)
1:36.4171 Ben Bargwanna (RM Customer Racing, Peugeot 308)

Championship points
1. Jordan Cox 126 pts; 2. Lee Holdsworth 122; 3. Chaz Mostert 112 

Picture: TCR Australia