Payne blazes to provisional pole, Wood stuns to fourth

Rising New Zealand stars fired to the fore in Boost Mobile Qualifying in Surfers Paradise, with Matt Payne beating Ford rival Cam Water and Broc Feeney to provisional pole for Race 22.

Payne, who finished fourth behind Waters, Thomas Randle and Feeney on Saturday, set the best time of the session with a 1:10.1508s, which was just 0.0151s quicker than Waters.

Feeney was 0.1s down with a 1:10.2591s, with rookie Ryan Wood the story of the session with a stunning run to fourth on his first visit to the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit.

Wood out-qualified Bathurst winner Brodie Kostecki, championship leader Will Brown and Walkinshaw Andretti United teammate Chaz Mostert, with Jack Le Brocq, Richie Stanaway and James Golding rounding out the top 10.

Payne, who claimed his maiden front row start on the Gold Coast 12 months ago, was happy to turn it around after narrowly scraping into Saturday's Shootout.

"We've improved our car a little bit from yesterday to this morning, so it's good to get out there and it was a little but scrappy with the red flag, but it all came down to the end there it was pretty intense," Payne said.

"Credit to the guys, they've been doing a really good job, and I'm looking forward to the Shootout.

"I think it's probably just conserving a little bit where the risky spots are, I was trying probably a little bit too hard to be a hero yesterday. Today we'll certainly go for a big lap, but we'll see what we can do."

The biggest loser was Saturday runner-up Randle, who was bumped at the death and missed out on a Shootout berth. Randle's session was punctuated by contact with the tyre barriers at the first chicane, with repairs taking place during a stoppage following a crash for Andre Heimgartner.

Feeney was right on it, powering in the fastest lap of the weekend, a 1:10.2591s. Golding (1:10.3871s) and Anton De Pasquale (1:10.4218s) slotted in behind before Heimgartner crashed.

The Brad Jones Racing driver was ninth in the order at the time of his accident, and courtesy of triggering the red flag, lost his fastest time and dropped to 19th. Heimgartner returned after rapid repairs, but only qualified 17th.

Waters, who hadn't set a competitive time, recorded a kerb strike at Turn 8 in the beach chicane when the session resumed. In a spectacular moment, replays showed Waters flying through the air off the kerb.

Teammate Randle, meanwhile, required running repairs during the stoppage after clouting the Turn 3 tyre barriers.

Waters (1:10.4907s) and Mostert (1:10.5947s) returned and jumped into the 10, before Brown set in a 1:10.3107s to sit behind his teammate.

Before the final runs, Feeney led Brown, Golding, De Pasquale, Waters, David Reynolds, Nick Percat, James Courtney and Randle, with Mostert on the bubble in 10th ahead of Mark Winterbottom and both Erebus Motorsport drivers.

After copping a kerb strike, Kostecki went faster than any other driver in the first sector, with De Pasquale going even quicker. As Kostecki closed out a 1:10.3081s to go second, De Pasquale picked up a kerb strike. Behind them, Mostert recorded a 1:10.3303s to move to fifth ahead of Waters.

Wood (1:10.2988s) and Waters (1:10.1659s) pulled out even more time, with Stanaway setting a 1:10.3508s to knock Randle out of the Shootout. De Pasquale, meanwhile, ended up 12th.

The fastest 10 drivers will return for the Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout at 11:35am local time/12:35pm AEDT, which will set the grid for Race 22 at 2:15pm local/3:15pm AEDT.