The Dick Johnson Racing pair jumped long-time pace-setter Shane van Gisbergen with five minutes of the half-hour session remaining.
Davison went quickest with a 53.909s before De Pasquale slotted into second with a 53.939s.
Van Gisbergen did have a crack at reclaiming top spot with a fastest first sector on his final run, however a kerb strike at the end of the lap put paid to any hopes of improvement.
De Pasquale had a kerb strike of his own at the end of the session, sealing top spot for Davison.
"We made good improvement from session one to session two," he said.
"I enjoyed that lap. There's nothing between [the DJR cars]. We're working together.
"We still know where our weakness is, maybe not over one lap, but even looking at the micros, there's a lot of T8 customer cars in there and we can see where Shane is very strong. We're still focussed on fixing a few things, particularly in the first sector.
"It feels really nice, but we know the story of the last few events and what we're trying to focus on."
Van Gisbergen ended up third while Jack Le Brocq continued his solid star to the weekend with the fourth fastest time.
Le Brocq's Matt Stone Racing teammate was an impressive fifth fastest followed by Mark Winterbottom, David Reynolds and Macauley Jones.
Chris Pither made a second appearance in the Top 10 for today with the ninth fastest time ahead of James Courtney, who was held up by Chaz Mostert late in the session.
It was a tough session for Mostert and his Walkinshaw Andretti United crew, the Albert Park race winner just 19th fastest, one spot ahead of his teammate Nick Percat.
Broc Feeney's slow start to the weekend continued as well, the teenager just 14th in the #88 Triple Eight Holden.
