Whincup takes pole for race two
Jamie Whincup continued his strong start to the season by taking pole position for the second race of the Desert 400 at the Bahrain International Circuit
Whincup was well down the order with just a couple of minutes remaining but like most of the field, left his best run until the final minutes of the 20 minute session, going to the top with 40 seconds of the session remaining to take pole position by one and a half tenths of a second.
Whincup's time bumped Mark Winterbottom down to second, with James Courtney in third another quarter of a second further back. Holden Racing Team's Will Davison just edged out Lee Holdsworth for the fourth-fastest time.
Sixth and seventh were two drivers who headed the times for much of the session, Jason Bright and Garth Tander, Tander even retaking the top spot with just over two minutes remaining before his rivals pushed him all the way back down to seventh.
After qualifying 22nd for race one, Jason Richards went much better today and cracked the top ten to take eighth place just ahead of Whincup's team-mate Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards having another good outing.
Shane van Gisbergen was unable to repeat his performance of second-fastest in yesterday's qualifying, however, and will start from 14th on the grid.
Another two drivers who started from inside the top-ten yesterday were team-mates Greg Murphy and Russell Ingall, who will start today's race from 19th and 21st respectively.
Pos Driver Car Time 1. Jamie Whincup Holden Commodore VE 2m05.3684s 2. Mark Winterbottom Ford Falcon FG 2m05.5044s +0.1360 3. James Courtney Ford Falcon FG 2m05.7606s +0.3922 4. Will Davison Holden Commodore VE 2m05.8111s +0.4427 5. Lee Holdsworth Holden Commodore VE 2m05.8368s +0.4684 6. Jason Bright Holden Commodore VE 2m05.9067s +0.5383 7. Garth Tander Holden Commodore VE 2m05.9439s +0.5755 8. Jason Richards Holden Commodore VE 2m06.0623s +0.6939 9. Craig Lowndes Holden Commodore VE 2m06.0839s +0.7155 10. Steven Richards Ford Falcon FG 2m06.0863s +0.7179 11. Rick Kelly Holden Commodore VE 2m06.1611s +0.7927 12. Todd Kelly Holden Commodore VE 2m06.1702s +0.8018 13. Jason Bargwanna Holden Commodore VE 2m06.2087s +0.8403 14. Shane Van Gisbergen Ford Falcon FG 2m06.2789s +0.9105 15. Tim Slade Ford Falcon FG 2m06.3467s +0.9783 16. Michael Caruso Holden Commodore VE 2m06.4013s +1.0329 17. Fabian Coulthard Holden Commodore VE 2m06.4979s +1.1295 18. Jonathon Webb Ford Falcon FG 2m06.5415s +1.1731 19. Greg Murphy Holden Commodore VE 2m06.5661s +1.1977 20. Steven Johnson Ford Falcon FG 2m06.6226s +1.2542 21. Russell Ingall Holden Commodore VE 2m06.6262s +1.2578 22. Alex Davison Ford Falcon FG 2m06.9360s +1.5676 23. Andrew Thompson Holden Commodore VE 2m06.9451s +1.5767 24. Paul Dumbrell Ford Falcon FG 2m07.0326s +1.6642 25. Tony D'Alberto Holden Commodore VE 2m07.1872s +1.8188 26. Dean Fiore Ford Falcon FG 2m07.7222s +2.3538 27. Daniel Gaunt Holden Commodore VE 2m08.1029s +2.7345 28. Karl Reindler Holden Commodore VE 2m08.1409s +2.7725 29. Tony Ricciardello Holden Commodore VE 2m08.9497s +3.5813
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments