Jamie Whincup has led a Red Bull Racing Australia front-row lock-out for Race 12 of the V8 Supercars Championship at Barbagallo.
Conserving tyres proved the story of the second 15 minute session, with Whincup languishing down in 24th before putting in what would prove to be his pole lap with 90 seconds remaining.
Whincup’s time of 55.25s undercut previous fast-man Lowndes by just 0.0037s.
Mark Winterbottom, Fabian Coulthard and Scott McLaughlin completed the top five – all three lapping within a tenth of the pole time.
Alex Davison, Will Davison, David Reynolds, Shane van Gisbergen and David Wall filled sixth through 10th.
Race 11 pole-sitter Jason Bright will start just 12th after a broken gearstick stopped the Team BOC Holden after just one lap.
Stand-out rookie Chaz Mostert repeated his Race 11 qualifying effort of 11th.
The Mercedes AMGs were led by Lee Holdsworth and fill 13th through 15th, while James Moffat was again the fastest Nissan, albeit down in 20th.
Alexandre Premat rounded out the field, completing just one lap after spending much of the 15 minutes in the garage with the bonnet up on his Fujitsu GRM Holden.
See below for the full Race 12 qualifying result
| 1 | Red Bull Racing Australia | Jamie Whincup | Holden Commodore VF | 0:55.2455* | |
| 2 | Red Bull Racing Australia | Craig Lowndes | Holden Commodore VF | 0:55.2492 | 0:00.0037 |
| 3 | Pepsi Max Crew FPR Ford | Mark Winterbottom | Ford Falcon FG | 0:55.3093 | 0:00.0638 |
| 4 | Lockwood Racing | Fabian Coulthard | Holden Commodore VF | 0:55.3119 | 0:00.0664 |
| 5 | Fujitsu Racing GRM | Scott McLaughlin | Holden Commodore VF | 0:55.3230 | 0:00.0775 |
| 6 | Jeld-wen FPR Ford | Alex Davison | Ford Falcon FG | 0:55.3568 | 0:00.1113 |
| 7 | Pepsi Max Crew FPR Ford | Will Davison | Ford Falcon FG | 0:55.3651 | 0:00.1196 |
| 8 | The Bottle-O FPR Ford | David Reynolds | Ford Falcon FG | 0:55.4214 | 0:00.1759 |
| 9 | TEKNO Team VIP | Shane Van Gisbergen | Holden Commodore VF | 0:55.4741 | 0:00.2286 |
| 10 | Wilson Security Racing | David Wall | Holden Commodore VF | 0:55.5086 | 0:00.2631 |
| 11 | Wilson Security Racing | Chaz Mostert | Ford Falcon FG | 0:55.5197 | 0:00.2742 |
| 12 | Team BOC | Jason Bright | Holden Commodore VF | 0:55.6303 | 0:00.3848 |
| 13 | Irwin Racing | Lee Holdsworth | Mercedes E63 AMG | 0:55.6537 | 0:00.4082 |
| 14 | SP Tools Racing | Maro Engel | Mercedes E63 AMG | 0:55.6914 | 0:00.4459 |
| 15 | HHA Racing | Tim Slade | Mercedes E63 AMG | 0:55.7062 | 0:00.4607 |
| 16 | Holden Racing Team | James Courtney | Holden Commodore VF | 0:55.7114 | 0:00.4659 |
| 17 | Supercheap Auto Racing | Russell Ingall | Holden Commodore VF | 0:55.7115 | 0:00.4660 |
| 18 | Team HIFLEX | Tony D’Alberto | Holden Commodore VF | 0:55.7192 | 0:00.4737 |
| 19 | Dodo Insurance Racing | Dean Fiore | Holden Commodore VF | 0:55.7650 | 0:00.5195 |
| 20 | Norton 360 Racing | James Moffat | Nissan Altima | 0:55.7853 | 0:00.5398 |
| 21 | Norton 360 Racing | Michael Caruso | Nissan Altima | 0:55.7942 | 0:00.5487 |
| 22 | Tekno Autosports | Jonathon Webb | Holden Commodore VF | 0:55.8160 | 0:00.5705 |
| 23 | Holden Racing Team | Garth Tander | Holden Commodore VF | 0:55.8267 | 0:00.5812 |
| 24 | Jack Daniel’s Racing | Rick Kelly | Nissan Altima | 0:55.9117 | 0:00.6662 |
| 25 | Wilson Security Racing | Tim Blanchard | Ford Falcon FG | 0:55.9538 | 0:00.7083 |
| 26 | Jack Daniel’s Racing | Todd Kelly | Nissan Altima | 0:56.0447 | 0:00.7992 |
| 27 | ekol Racing | Scott Pye | Holden Commodore VF | 0:56.0690 | 0:00.8235 |
| 28 | Fujitsu Racing GRM | Alexandre Premat | Holden Commodore VF | 0:57.6048 | 0:02.3593 |
