Whincup on Race 17 pole as Prodrive fumes

Jamie Whincup scored the Armor All Pole Award for Race 17 at Ipswich in a qualifying session that left Prodrive and Mark Winterbottom furious.

Whincup put down a 1:09.4s midway through the 20 minutes that even he could not match on the final green tyre run.

Craig Lowndes will share the front-row having fallen 0.09s short of his Triple Eight team-mate before electing to sit out the final run altogether.

Shane van Gisbergen was the big mover in the dying seconds, jumping from last to a brief high of third.

The Kiwi made a mistake on his first run as he struggled with distinctly different track conditions to yesterday, triggering a late damper change ahead of the final minutes.

Chaz Mostert responded to Van Gisbergen’s effort by bumping him back to fourth seconds later, ensuring the Supercheap Ford will start third.

Team-mate Mark Winterbottom was just fifth after coming across Kurt Kostecki at the high-speed Turn 2 on his last lap.

Kostecki, who is running two events for Team 18 after cutting a deal to supply his Dunlop Series car to the squad, also held up Winterbottom’s team-mate Cameron Waters.

“(It was) just an amateur move and unfortunately both our guys lost their green tyre runs,” fumed Prodrive team principal Tim Edwards.

“We should have better licensing that people of that level of experience can’t go and do that. It’s bloody disappointing.”

Winterbottom also bemoaned the rookie’s place in the field, describing the 18-year-old’s lack of experience as a safety issue.

“A guy comes in inexperienced but they don’t park up at one of the fastest corners in Australian motorsport,” said the reigning champion.

“You come flying in there… I almost ripped the front wheel off with him. He just sat on the inside of the corner. It’s just silly.

“I think we had a car good enough for pole. We still salvaged fifth but when guys that aren’t even in the series get in your way… what do you do?

“It’s just safety. If I’d have hit him, ripped the front wheel off you’re in the fence and you’re hurt. Results are results but it’s more the safety that I worry about.”

Scott Pye bounced back strongly from a horror Saturday to take sixth ahead of Michael Caruso, Tim Slade, Saturday pole-sitter Chris Pither and Scott McLaughlin.

Waters ended up 11th in a session that saw all six Fords inside the top 15.

The 200km Race 17 will get underway at 1405 local time.

Result: Virgin Australia Supercars Championship Coates Hire Ipswich Super Sprint Race 17 Qualifying