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Whincup nicks Bahrain race one pole

Team Vodafone's Jamie Whincup continued his strong start to the season by claiming pole position for the first race of the Desert 400 at the Bahrain International Circuit

Whincup set the fastest time in qualifying and repeated the feat in the top-ten shootout, despite a couple of moments in the middle of the lap which saw him down a few hundredths of a second starting the final sector, but he recovered to take pole by a quarter of a second.

It meant that Stone Brothers Racing's Shane van Gisbergen will have to wait to claim his maiden pole position, but it was a superb lap regardless to set the second-fastest time, just edging fellow Ford runner Mark Winterbottom's Ford Performance Racing Machine.

Next fastest were Holden Racing Team's Garth Tander and Jim Beam Racing's James Courtney, with Tander's team-mate Will Davison moving up to sixth from tenth before the shootout, Davison just holding out Steven Richards in a return to the front of the grid and a disappointed Craig Lowndes who had set the second-fastest time beforehand.

Completing the top ten runners were the two Paul Morris cars of Greg Murphy and Russell Ingall, both having issues with grip on their lap that saw them well off the pace, both drivers dropping four places down the order.

Just missing out on the shootout in 11th and 12th were Lee Holdsworth and Alex Davison, Holdsworth getting bumped out just 30 seconds before the end of the session.

13th fastest for Rick Kelly was not where he had hoped to be, though it was five places better than brother Todd who had set the third-fastest time overall in yesterday's practice sessions.

The Bundaberg Red team struggled again despite their close links with HRT, 17th for Fabian Coulthard and 21st for Andrew Thompson, though at least they outqualified the three Brad Jones cars of Jason Richards in 22nd, Jason Bright in 24th and Karl Reindler in 28th.

Pos  Driver                Car                   Time
 1.  Jamie Whincup         Holden Commodore VE   2m04.5189s 
 2.  Shane Van Gisbergen   Ford Falcon FG        2m04.7601s  +0.2412s
 3.  Mark Winterbottom     Ford Falcon FG        2m04.8245s  +0.3056s
 4.  Garth Tander          Holden Commodore VE   2m05.1780s  +0.6591s
 5.  James Courtney        Ford Falcon FG        2m05.2142s  +0.6953s
 6.  Will Davison          Holden Commodore VE   2m05.4901s  +0.9712s
 7.  Steven Richards       Ford Falcon FG        2m05.5247s  +1.0058s
 8.  Craig Lowndes         Holden Commodore VE   2m05.5945s  +1.0756s
 9.  Greg Murphy           Holden Commodore VE   2m06.2238s  +1.7049s
10.  Russell Ingall        Holden Commodore VE   2m06.2445s  +1.7256s
11.  Lee Holdsworth        Holden Commodore VE   2m06.0154s  +0.8497s
12.  Alex Davison          Ford Falcon FG        2m06.0384s  +0.8727s
13.  Rick Kelly            Holden Commodore VE   2m06.1876s  +1.0219s
14.  Jonathon Webb         Ford Falcon FG        2m06.1908s  +1.0251s
15.  Michael Caruso        Holden Commodore VE   2m06.2695s  +1.1038s
16.  Steven Johnson        Ford Falcon FG        2m06.3372s  +1.1715s
17.  Fabian Coulthard      Holden Commodore VE   2m06.3953s  +1.2296s
18.  Todd Kelly            Holden Commodore VE   2m06.5219s  +1.3562s
19.  Tim Slade             Ford Falcon FG        2m06.5954s  +1.4297s
20.  Paul Dumbrell         Ford Falcon FG        2m06.8854s  +1.7197s
21.  Andrew Thompson       Holden Commodore VE   2m06.9030s  +1.7373s
22.  Jason Richards        Holden Commodore VE   2m06.9633s  +1.7976s
23.  Jason Bargwanna       Holden Commodore VE   2m07.1000s  +1.9343s
24.  Jason Bright          Holden Commodore VE   2m07.3799s  +2.2142s
25.  Tony D'Alberto        Holden Commodore VE   2m07.4578s  +2.2921s
26.  Dean Fiore            Ford Falcon FG        2m07.5896s  +2.4239s
27.  Daniel Gaunt          Holden Commodore VE   2m07.9573s  +2.7916s
28.  Karl Reindler         Holden Commodore VE   2m07.9751s  +2.8094s
29.  Tony Ricciardello     Holden Commodore VE   2m08.4635s  +3.2978s

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