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Jamie Whincup has scored pole position for the opening V8 Supercars heat at Albert Park in a tight qualifying session.
The Fords of Mark Winterbottom, Fabian Coulthard and Chaz Mostert completed the top four, which were separated by just 0.088s.
Whincup’s 1:56.56s best came midway through the 30 minutes, with the time proving unbeatable in the closing stages.
“The cloud came in which should mean the track was quicker at the end,” shrugged Whincup after the session.
“(Engineer David) Cauchi was the man then. He made the big calls prior to qualy that got us the P1.”
Whincup rubbed the wall on the exit of Turn 10 during his final attempt to go quicker.
“If you’re not running a little bit wide here and there you’re not going hard enough,” he added.
Winterbottom was the most notable improver in the last tyre run, leaping ahead of Coulthard for second.
“I thought the track would cool down but it’d actually got hotter for the start of the session,” noted Winterbottom.
“We made a few changes for a cooler track but when it didn’t (get cooler) the car was really loose.
“For the last set (of tyres) we changed it back and it was really good until Turn 14 where we had a bit of a wobble and lost time.
“But I’m pretty happy. We’ve made progress and it’s nice to just be confident back in the car after a tough Adelaide.”
Shane van Gisbergen ended up fifth in the second Red Bull entry ahead of Jason Bright, Craig Lowndes, Michael Caruso, James Courtney and Scott Pye.
Will Davison joined the session 10 minutes in following repairs to his Tekno Holden after its Practice 2 crash.
The Darrell Lea backed entry will start Race 1 from 16th.
Result: V8 Supercars Qualifying, Albert Park
1 | Red Bull Racing Australia | Jamie Whincup | Holden Commodore VF | 1:56.5634* | |
2 | The Bottle-O Racing Team | Mark Winterbottom | Ford Falcon FG/X | 01:56.58 | 00:00.02 |
3 | DJR Team Penske | Fabian Coulthard | Ford Falcon FG/X | 01:56.63 | 00:00.07 |
4 | Supercheap Auto Racing | Chaz Mostert | Ford Falcon FG/X | 01:56.65 | 00:00.09 |
5 | Red Bull Racing Australia | Shane Van Gisbergen | Holden Commodore VF | 01:56.71 | 00:00.15 |
6 | Team BOC | Jason Bright | Holden Commodore VF | 01:56.97 | 00:00.41 |
7 | Team Vortex | Craig Lowndes | Holden Commodore VF | 01:56.98 | 00:00.42 |
8 | Nissan Motorsport | Michael Caruso | Nissan Altima | 01:57.00 | 00:00.43 |
9 | Holden Racing Team | James Courtney | Holden Commodore VF | 01:57.01 | 00:00.45 |
10 | DJR Team Penske | Scott Pye | Ford Falcon FG/X | 01:57.12 | 00:00.56 |
11 | Prodrive Racing Australia | Cameron Waters | Ford Falcon FG/X | 01:57.14 | 00:00.58 |
12 | Wilson Security Racing GRM | Scott McLaughlin | Volvo S60 | 01:57.15 | 00:00.59 |
13 | Nissan Motorsport | Rick Kelly | Nissan Altima | 01:57.22 | 00:00.66 |
14 | Erebus Motorsport Penrite | David Reynolds | Holden Commodore VF | 01:57.22 | 00:00.66 |
15 | Holden Racing Team | Garth Tander | Holden Commodore VF | 01:57.30 | 00:00.74 |
16 | Team Darrell Lea STIX | Will Davison | Holden Commodore VF | 01:57.50 | 00:00.94 |
17 | Superblack Racing | Chris Pither | Ford Falcon FG/X | 01:57.53 | 00:00.97 |
18 | Freightliner Racing | Tim Slade | Holden Commodore VF | 01:57.57 | 00:01.01 |
19 | carsales Racing | Todd Kelly | Nissan Altima | 01:57.67 | 00:01.11 |
20 | Preston Hire Racing | Lee Holdsworth | Holden Commodore VF | 01:57.70 | 00:01.14 |
21 | LD Motorsports | Andre Heimgartner | Holden Commodore VF | 01:57.83 | 00:01.27 |
22 | LD Motorsports | Nick Percat | Holden Commodore VF | 01:57.84 | 00:01.28 |
23 | GB Galvanizing Racing | Dale Wood | Nissan Altima | 01:57.98 | 00:01.42 |
24 | Wilson Security Racing GRM | James Moffat | Volvo S60 | 01:57.99 | 00:01.42 |
25 | Team Cooldrive | Tim Blanchard | Holden Commodore VF | 01:58.08 | 00:01.52 |
26 | Plus Fitness Racing | Aaren Russell | Holden Commodore VF | 01:59.29 | 00:02.73 |
