Supercars to trial MotoGP-style qualifying

Supercars is set to trial a MotoGP-style qualifying format at its two shortest circuits next season.

In a bid to ease traffic concerns on the short Symmons Plains and Barbagallo circuits, the series has announced it will debut a brand new staggered qualifying system for those two rounds.

Like in MotoGP the running order will be determined based on practice times, although it will be run over three sessions rather than two.

According to a story on the series' official website, the Top 10 combined from Friday's practice sessions will go straight into a 10-minute Q2 session. Before that there will be a 10-minute Q1 session for those that missed out, the top six from which will also be given a Q2 berth.

The Top 10 from Q2 will then head into a 10-minute Q3 session.

For Sunday, there will be a 20-minute practice session to determine who will go straight into Q2 before the process is repeated.

There will be five minutes between each session, creating a total qualifying length of around 40 minutes.

An extra set of tyres will be added to the allocation for those two rounds, but will need to be handed back before Saturday's qualifying session.

“We’ve had issues at Symmons Plains and Barbagallo, which have been a function of the circuit length and the amount of cars,” Supercars sporting and technical director David Stuart told the official website.

“The aim has been to try and reduce the amount of traffic on track, which lessens the chances of those issues reoccurring.

“We looked at the way MotoGP and Formula 1 do things and we’ve come up with a combination of both.

“We did discuss [Queensland Raceway] and Winton, but the Commission members felt there’s probably enough separation on those circuits not to employ this at those venues.

“Plus we want to see how it goes and if it’s successful it might be something that we use at those circuits

“It’s not something that you’d have everywhere, but it’s something different that we are going to try at these shorter circuits.

“The way it’s structured should alleviate that pressure, but until you try it you don’t completely know.”

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