Van Gisbergen beats Whincup to Race 3 pole

Shane van Gisbergen’s hopes of defending his Clipsal 500 trophy have received a major boost with the Kiwi scoring pole position on Sunday in Adelaide.

Van Gisbergen topped the 20 minute qualifying session and subsequent Shootout to record his first pole of the season.

Jamie Whincup will start on the outside of the front-row having set a benchmark that eventually fell 0.2s short of his Tekno rival.

Having been involved in several incidents during Race 2, for which he started back in 16th, Van Gisbergen says that he’s looking forward to being up the front.

“The car was awesome and we really just worked on getting the temperature for the first lap and right from the first corner it was on,” he said of the Top 10.

“We’ll just try and get clear air at the start and have a go. Yesterday we had a fast car but just kept getting caught up with mistakes and other people. Hopefully it’s a better race today.”

Second-row starters Garth Tander and Rick Kelly were the big winners of the Shootout, jumping from sixth and ninth after qualifying respectively.

Craig Lowndes and Scott McLaughlin meanwhile were the clear losers of the one-lap session.

Second in qualifying, the #888 Holden had been quicker than Whincup to the second sector before sliding wide at Turn 9 and ending up seventh.

Hero of the weekend so far, Scott McLaughlin, was fourth after qualifying but will start just 10th after triggering the Turn 2 kerb sensor on his lap.

Fifth proved a solid result for Mark Winterbottom, who had made the Shootout despite a damaged rear-bumper after contact from Dale Wood at pit exit.

The FPR Falcon driver had propped at the exit in order to let Fabian Coulthard, who had been coming down the straight on a hot lap, take the racing line into Turn 1.

Wood was forced to pit with a crumpled bonnet but returned to the circuit to set the 21st quickest time.

The session featured an early stoppage to retrieve Robert Dahlgren’s Volvo after it dropped oil pressure and was parked on the run to Turn 9.

See below for the Top 10 Shootout result 

See below for the qualifying session result