The Kiwi stormed to the top early in the session with a 1m05.420s, the best time of the weekend so far.
It proved to be unbeatable even in the end-of-session happy hour, Andre Heimgartner going closest to knocking van Gisbergen off, but falling four-hundredths short.
"We put new tyres on and had a go," said van Gisbergen. "We ended up pretty fast, but the last run I didn't improve, so we de-tuned it a little bit and I drove bad. We can tune that up."
Anton De Pasquale was third fastest ahead of Dick Johnson Racing teammate Will Davison, just two hundredths separating the Shell Ford pair.
Mark Winterbottom led the way for Team 18 with the fifth fastest time followed by Practice 1 pacesetter Chaz Mostert and Triple Eight rookie Broc Feeney.
Cam Waters was the best Tickford car in eighth from David Reynolds and Brodie Kostecki.
James Courtney gave his crew some evening work by clobbering the wall at Turn 10 midway through the session. The veteran locked his inside front tyre on the way into the corner, bounced over the gravel and into the barrier.
"I just snagged the front left corner," he said. "It's very unforgiving, not a lot of run-off there. It's disappointing. There's a bit of work for the guys tonight now."
The Darwin Triple Crown continues with qualifying at 11:45am local time tomorrow.
| Cla | # | Driver | Car | Time | Gap | Interval |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 97 |  Shane van Gisbergen | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'05.4203 | ||
| 2 | 8 | Andre Heimgartner | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'05.4635 | 0.0432 | 0.0432 |
| 3 | 11 |  Anton De Pasquale | Ford Mustang GT | 1'05.5085 | 0.0882 | 0.0450 |
| 4 | 17 | Will Davison | Ford Mustang GT | 1'05.5211 | 0.1008 | 0.0126 |
| 5 | 18 | Mark Winterbottom | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'05.5958 | 0.1755 | 0.0747 |
| 6 | 25 | Chaz Mostert | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'05.6660 | 0.2457 | 0.0702 |
| 7 | 88 | Broc Feeney | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'05.7165 | 0.2962 | 0.0505 |
| 8 | 6 | Cameron Waters | Ford Mustang GT | 1'05.7433 | 0.3230 | 0.0268 |
| 9 | 26 | David Reynolds | Ford Mustang GT | 1'05.7802 | 0.3599 | 0.0369 |
| 10 | 99 | Brodie Kostecki | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'05.8158 | 0.3955 | 0.0356 |
| 11 | 10 | Lee Holdsworth | Ford Mustang GT | 1'05.8240 | 0.4037 | 0.0082 |
| 12 | 34 | Jack Le Brocq | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'05.8757 | 0.4554 | 0.0517 |
| 13 | 76 | Garry Jacobson | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'05.8811 | 0.4608 | 0.0054 |
| 14 | 22 | Chris Pither | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'05.9119 | 0.4916 | 0.0308 |
| 15 | 4 | Jack Smith | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'05.9134 | 0.4931 | 0.0015 |
| 16 | 35 | Todd Hazelwood | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'05.9254 | 0.5051 | 0.0120 |
| 17 | 14 | Bryce Fullwood | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'05.9377 | 0.5174 | 0.0123 |
| 18 | 9 | Will Brown | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'05.9826 | 0.5623 | 0.0449 |
| 19 | 2 | Nick Percat | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'06.0047 | 0.5844 | 0.0221 |
| 20 | 27 | Jayden Ojeda | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'06.0162 | 0.5959 | 0.0115 |
| 21 | 56 | Jake Kostecki | Ford Mustang GT | 1'06.0517 | 0.6314 | 0.0355 |
| 22 | 20 | Scott Pye | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'06.0575 | 0.6372 | 0.0058 |
| 23 | 96 | Macauley Jones | Holden Commodore ZB | 1'06.1249 | 0.7046 | 0.0674 |
| 24 | 5 | James Courtney | Ford Mustang GT | 1'06.1745 | 0.7542 | 0.0496 |
| 25 | 3 | Tim Slade | Ford Mustang GT | 1'06.1808 | 0.7605 | 0.0063 |
| 26 | 55 | Thomas Randle | Ford Mustang GT | 1'06.4381 | 1.0178 | 0.2573 |
| 27 | 78 | Zak Best | Ford Mustang GT | 1'06.6366 | 1.2163 | 0.1985 |
| View full results | ||||||
