Officials explain decision to declare Adelaide qualifying

Motorsport Australia officials have explained why Race 23 qualifying was ultimately declared following a spate of crashes at Turn 8 at the VAILO Adelaide 500.

Richie Stanaway, Cameron Hill and David Reynolds crashed at the infamous sweeper approximately five minutes into the 15-minute session.

Stanaway went in first, but managed to recover his damaged car back to pit lane. Hill and Reynolds, however, crashed heavily just 11 seconds apart and came to rest on the run to Turn 9, causing a red flag.

A number of concrete barriers were dislodged at Turn 8 due to the impacts, with the wall repairs ultimately taking the session past the circuit cut-off time of 6:15pm local.

By then, stewards had an opportunity to assess the time sheets, and given all cars had had an opportunity to set a meaningful lap time, a recommendation was made to declare the session.

All told, championship leader Will Brown clinched provisional pole ahead of Cam Waters, while Chaz Mostert — who hadn’t set a lap time — ended up 22nd.

"We went red flag, and then the recovery and resourcing component has commenced,” Race Director James Taylor told select media, including Supercars.com, after the session.

“We were looking at the fact it's going to be a lengthy process to resume. So, we'd already started a procession to looking at what extension time we can get this evening, what was the maximum time we could run to.

“There was an arrangement on that, that was the plan we were going to. And then, we reached a point where we bypassed our maximum extension for time today, which was 6:15, so we made the announcement it was suspended.

“Then we then looked into the next avenue; is it possible, once we work through the rule books, to make sure we're doing everything right, to resume the session tomorrow at some point in time?

"The suspension gave us a chance to give it all clarity, read through and check through the rules. We needed to make sure everything's done above board and as it should be done to make sure it's fair and even for everyone.”

The stewards were alerted of an impact warning from Stanaway's car, but there was no footage of a crash, with the Kiwi making it back to the pits. A number of cars passed through, with Hill crashing 24 seconds later. Yellow and then red flags were quickly displayed, with Reynolds hitting the wall just 11 seconds after Hill.

Ultimately, all cars bar Mostert and James Golding had set a meaningful lap time.

With regards to the status of the dislodged Turn 8 concrete barriers, Taylor reiterated that “near enough wasn't good enough,” and that the wall had to be restored to original configuration.

“It'd be similar circumstances if we had a sudden downpour halfway through, you can see if everyone is settled up,” Taylor added.

"Because under the rules, we have a 15 minute extension for qualifying, and we used all that, and some.

"We exercised every avenue to resume and make sure it's in the safest possible manner. But the fairness for the sport in general, is the way it's gone now."

Supercars will return on Saturday with Practice 3 at 10:00am local time/10:30am AEDT, followed by the Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout at 12:35pm/1:05pm AEDT.

The Shootout will set the grid for the first 78-lap race of the weekend, Race 23, at 3:20pm local time/3:50pm AEDT.