Craig Lowndes has scored his third Armor All Pole Award of the weekend at Symmons Plains ahead of this afternoon’s 200km finale.
The 40-year-old now has 40 career poles and is hunting a 100th race win in the championship.
Lowndes sat atop the order with a 52.03s best ahead of the crucial final tyre run of the 20 minute session.
The Red Bull driver then improved the benchmark further to 57.80s to end up 0.04s clear of David Reynolds’ Prodrive Ford.
“I actually didn’t think I got the best out of the car today in qualifying, but it was good enough to be up there,” smiled Lowndes.
“The guys are all delighted and now we can concentrate on the 84 laps ahead.”
Lowndes’ team-mate Jamie Whincup will start third ahead of Will Davison, Shane van Gisbergen and Chaz Mostert.
Andre Heimgartner backed up his impressive Saturday qualifying efforts with seventh ahead of Garth Tander, Mark Winterbottom and Jason Bright.
Scott McLaughlin and James Courtney both found themselves outside the top 10 in 11th and 12th respectively.
An incredibly tight session saw the top 24 cars separated by just 0.6s around the short 2.4km layout.
Race 6 of the championship is scheduled to get underway at 1400 local time.
While qualifying was held solely on hard tyres, each car will be allocated a set of softs to use during the race.
QUALIFYING : Race 6 – Symmons Plains
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap |
| 1 | Craig Lowndes | Red Bull Racing Australia | Holden Commodore VF | 0:51.7978* | |
| 2 | David Reynolds | The Bottle-O Racing Team | Ford Falcon FG/X | 0:51.8463 | 0:00.0485 |
| 3 | Jamie Whincup | Red Bull Racing Australia | Holden Commodore VF | 0:51.8532 | 0:00.0554 |
| 4 | Will Davison | Erebus Motorsport V8 | Mercedes E63 AMG | 0:51.9062 | 0:00.1084 |
| 5 | Shane Van Gisbergen | Team Darrell Lea STIX | Holden Commodore VF | 0:51.9125 | 0:00.1147 |
| 6 | Chaz Mostert | Pepsi Max Crew | Ford Falcon FG/X | 0:52.0099 | 0:00.2121 |
| 7 | Andre Heimgartner | Super Black Racing | Ford Falcon FG/X | 0:52.0172 | 0:00.2194 |
| 8 | Garth Tander | Holden Racing Team | Holden Commodore VF | 0:52.0219 | 0:00.2241 |
| 9 | Mark Winterbottom | Pepsi Max Crew | Ford Falcon FG/X | 0:52.0668 | 0:00.2690 |
| 10 | Jason Bright | Team BOC | Holden Commodore VF | 0:52.0972 | 0:00.2994 |
| 11 | Scott McLaughlin | Wilson Security Racing GRM | Volvo S60 | 0:52.1461 | 0:00.3483 |
| 12 | James Courtney | Holden Racing Team | Holden Commodore VF | 0:52.1899 | 0:00.3921 |
| 13 | Dale Wood | GB Galvanizing Racing | Holden Commodore VF | 0:52.1906 | 0:00.3928 |
| 14 | Fabian Coulthard | Freightliner Racing | Holden Commodore VF | 0:52.1991 | 0:00.4013 |
| 15 | Lee Holdsworth | Walkinshaw Racing | Holden Commodore VF | 0:52.2249 | 0:00.4271 |
| 16 | Tim Slade | Supercheap Auto Racing | Holden Commodore VF | 0:52.2454 | 0:00.4476 |
| 17 | Nick Percat | Repair Management Aust Racing | Holden Commodore VF | 0:52.2502 | 0:00.4524 |
| 18 | Ashley Walsh | Erebus Motorsport V8 | Mercedes E63 AMG | 0:52.2516 | 0:00.4538 |
| 19 | Rick Kelly | Nissan Motorsport | Nissan Altima | 0:52.2945 | 0:00.4967 |
| 20 | Todd Kelly | Nissan Motorsport | Nissan Altima | 0:52.3503 | 0:00.5525 |
| 21 | Scott Pye | DJR Team Penske | Ford Falcon FG/X | 0:52.3642 | 0:00.5664 |
| 22 | James Moffat | Nissan Mororsport | Nissan Altima | 0:52.3730 | 0:00.5752 |
| 23 | David Wall | Wilson Security Racing GRM | Volvo S60 | 0:52.3898 | 0:00.5920 |
| 24 | Michael Caruso | Nissan Motorsport | Nissan Altima | 0:52.3929 | 0:00.5951 |
| 25 | Tim Blanchard | Team Cooldrive | Holden Commodore VF | 0:52.9913 | 0:01.1935 |
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