An all-or-nothing last lap has given Dylan O’Keefe pole position for the first of three carsales TCR Australia Series races at Phillip Island.

The Alfa Romeo driver was trailing Will Brown’s pace-setting Hyundai until the dying seconds of qualifying, when O’Keefe uncorked a cracker to lap the high-speed track in 1 minute 35.9877 seconds to take pole position by 0.4853 seconds.

Brown held onto second place and Jason Bright was strong in third with his Volkswagen Golf with a time of 1:36.5163.

There were five brands in the top six cars, with the top seven qualifiers covered by less than a second.

“It was close, but we got it,” O’Keefe said of his pole lap.

“It’s not easy to drive one of these TCR cars around here but it was fun. So it’s really good to put it all together.”

Brown was disappointed not to hold pole and admitted he had lost his best lap after being baulked by a tail-ender.

“I was a bit annoyed. But we can still race for wins,” said Brown.

“The car was nicely settled today and I could control it well. It was more balanced and it’s got plenty of speed.”

A pair of Hondas qualified in fourth and fifth, with Tony D’Alberto just ahead of John Martin after battling through a misfire with his Civic Type R during Friday practice.

Garth Tander managed seventh-quickest time in his Audi RS3, after pacing the field in practice, while his wife Leanne was 13th and quickest of the four women in the 18-car field in another Audi.