Ford Performance Racing duo Will Davison and Mark Winterbottom have struck back in their fight against TeamVodafone by locking out the front-row of the grid for Race 17 of the V8 Supercars Championship at Queensland Raceway.
Davison set the pole time of 1:09.48s on his final lap of the 20 minute session to edge out his team-mate, with Winterbottom proving unable to better a 1:09.50s time set on his first set of new tyres. Remarkably, all four of Winterbottom’s green tyre laps were in the 1:09.5s bracket.
Increased track temperatures helped prevent any of the 28 runners approaching Craig Lowndes’ record breaking 1:09.22s lap from yesterday’s qualifying session.
The result marks Davison’s fourth Armor All Pole Award of the 2012 season.
Jamie Whincup took third after using just one new set of new rubber – leaping from 27th to a high of second with just 90 seconds remaining.
Lowndes also left his charge to the dying stages and will share the second row with his team-mate.
Russell Ingall continued his strong weekend in fifth, ahead of Jonathon Webb, Fabian Coulthard, Shane van Gisbergen, Michael Caruso and Tony D’Alberto.
Tough weekends for former series champions Rick Kelly and Garth Tander continued. The pair will start 23rd and 24th respectively.
Jacques Villeneuve meanwhile brought up the tail of the field, with his best time 1.4s slower than Davison’s and 0.46s adrift of fellow rear-of-grid starter David Wall.
The 200km Race 17 is scheduled to get underway at 1535 local time.
See below for the full qualifying result
| 1 | Trading Post FPR Ford | Will Davison | Ford Falcon FG | 1:09.4828 | |
| 2 | Orrcon Steel FPR Ford | Mark Winterbottom | Ford Falcon FG | 1:09.5046 | 0:00.0218 |
| 3 | TeamVodafone | Jamie Whincup | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:09.5078 | 0:00.0250 |
| 4 | TeamVodafone | Craig Lowndes | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:09.5776 | 0:00.0948 |
| 5 | Supercheap Auto Racing | Russell Ingall | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:09.5861 | 0:00.1033 |
| 6 | Tekno Autosports | Jonathon Webb | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:09.6139 | 0:00.1311 |
| 7 | Lockwood Racing | Fabian Coulthard | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:09.6441 | 0:00.1613 |
| 8 | SP Tools Racing | Shane Van Gisbergen | Ford Falcon FG | 1:09.6640 | 0:00.1812 |
| 9 | Fujitsu Racing GRM | Michael Caruso | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:09.6968 | 0:00.2140 |
| 10 | Team Hiflex | Tony D’Alberto | Ford Falcon FG | 1:09.7423 | 0:00.2595 |
| 11 | Lucky 7 Racing | Tim Slade | Ford Falcon FG | 1:09.7488 | 0:00.2660 |
| 12 | Jim Beam Racing | Dean Fiore | Ford Falcon FG | 1:09.7847 | 0:00.3019 |
| 13 | The Bottle-O Racing Team | David Reynolds | Ford Falcon FG | 1:09.7864 | 0:00.3036 |
| 14 | Jim Beam Racing | Steven Johnson | Ford Falcon FG | 1:09.7918 | 0:00.3090 |
| 15 | VIP Petfoods | Steve Owen | Ford Falcon FG | 1:09.8328 | 0:00.3500 |
| 16 | Jack Daniel’s Racing | Todd Kelly | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:09.8329 | 0:00.3501 |
| 17 | Team BOC | Jason Bright | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:09.8330 | 0:00.3502 |
| 18 | Holden Racing Team | James Courtney | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:09.8762 | 0:00.3934 |
| 19 | Irwin Racing | Lee Holdsworth | Ford Falcon FG | 1:09.8763 | 0:00.3935 |
| 20 | Fujitsu Racing GRM | Alexandre Premat | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:09.9130 | 0:00.4302 |
| 21 | Team Norton DJR | James Moffat | Ford Falcon FG | 1:09.9147 | 0:00.4319 |
| 22 | Tekno Autosports | Michael Patrizi | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:09.9310 | 0:00.4482 |
| 23 | Jack Daniel’s Racing | Rick Kelly | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:10.0122 | 0:00.5294 |
| 24 | Holden Racing Team | Garth Tander | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:10.0144 | 0:00.5316 |
| 25 | Team iSelect | Taz Douglas | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:10.1356 | 0:00.6528 |
| 26 | Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing | Karl Reindler | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:10.2665 | 0:00.7837 |
| 27 | Wilson Security Racing | David Wall | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:10.4098 | 0:00.9270 |
| 28 | Pepsi Max Crew | Jaques Villeneuve | Holden Commodore VE2 | 1:10.8630 | 0:01.3802 |
See below for Speedcafe.com’s Coates Hire Ipswich 300 Race Guide
