THE battle for Supercars’ Armor All Pole Award will go down to the final Top 10 Shootout of the season at the Sydney 500.

Shane van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup both qualified for the one-lap blast, the Red Bull duo ending the 20-minute qualifying session for Race 29 in first and third.

The provisional 2016 champion will seal the award with a pole or a front-row result from the shootout, while Whincup will snatch the award on a countback if he takes pole — equalling SVG’s tally of seven, but edging him on third placings.

Splitting the Red Bull duo was David Reynolds, although the Erebus man reckoned he came within a graze of landing provisional pole.

RESULTS: Click here for full results from Qualifying for Race 29

“I probably should’ve been quickest but I drilled the fence at the last corner!” he said.

“But we’re in the Shootout, which is the main objective.”

A lot of big names weren’t so lucky.

Behind the top three were James Courtney, Scott McLaughlin, Michael Caruso, Tim Slade, Garth Tander and Nick Percat, with tenth-placed Todd Kelly squeaking in by just 0.002 of a second.

Missing the cut was Bathurst-winner Will Davison (11th), outgoing series champion Mark Winterbottom (13th) and 2015 pole award winner Chaz Mostert, who registered his worst qualifying result of the season in 19th.

McLaughlin also stole a major march on his rival for third place in the series standings, Craig Lowndes.

The Supercars veteran could do no better than 14th, ensuring Lowndes his first season without a pole position since 2010.