Surfers V8 Supercars: Jamie Whincup gets pole for himself and Sebastien Bourdais

Whincup had narrowly lost out to Will Davison in the provisional qualifying session that decided the shoot-out field.

But when it counted the Triple Eight Holden driver turned the tables on his Ford Performance Racing rival with a 1m11.6478s lap, 0.2252 seconds quicker than Davison, who is joined for the weekend by ex-Formula 1 driver Mika Salo.

Rick Kelly and IndyCar's Graham Rahal will start third, after Kelly delivered a resurgent qualifying performance near the end of an underwhelming year for his family team.

That was one of several surprises among the lead order, with Garry Rogers Motorsport's Michael Caruso putting his and James Hinchcliffe's Holden fourth, ahead of the Jonathon Webb/Marc Lieb Tekno Holden. Lieb had been quickest in both of Friday's practice sessions for the international guest drivers.

Mark Winterbottom was back in sixth in FPR's second car, followed by Fabian Coulthard, Tony D'Alberto and James Courtney. A mistake on his pole shot left Shane van Gisbergen a distant 10th.

Amid a string of red flags, provisional qualifying delivered a few upsets, including Whincup's team-mate and title rival Craig Lowndes only managing 13th in the Holden he shares with Richard Lyons.

Garth Tander fared much worse, clashing with David Wall as the Britek driver tried to warm his tyres. Tander and Ryan Briscoe will have to start back in 24th.

Pos  Drivers                    Team/Car               Time        Gap
 1.  Whincup/Bourdais           Triple Eight Holden    1m11.6478s
 2.  Davison/Salo               FPR Ford               1m11.8730s  + 0.2252s
 3.  Kelly/Rahal                Kelly Holden           1m11.8841s  + 0.2363s
 4.  Caruso/Hinchcliffe         Garry Rogers Holden    1m11.9581s  + 0.3103s
 5.  Webb/Lieb                  Tekno Holden           1m11.9582s  + 0.3104s
 6.  Winterbottom/Power         FPR Ford               1m11.9823s  + 0.3345s
 7.  Coulthard/Minassian        Brad Jones Holden      1m12.1900s  + 0.5422s
 8.  D'Alberto/Liuzzi           D'Alberto Ford         1m12.2253s  + 0.5775s
 9.  Courtney/Turner            HRT Holden             1m12.4361s  + 0.7883s
10.  van Gisbergen/Bleekemolen  Stone Brothers Ford    1m27.0601s  + 15.4123s
11.  Slade/Brabham              Rosenberg/SBR Ford     1m11.8249s  Qual one
12.  Reynolds/Heidfeld          Rod Nash/FPR Ford      1m11.8434s  Qual one
13.  Lowndes/Lyons              Triple Eight Holden    1m11.8748s  Qual one
14.  Owen/Said                  Paul Morris/DJR Ford   1m11.8761s  Qual one
15.  Ingall/Dumbreck            Walkinshaw/HRT Holden  1m11.9226s  Qual one
16.  Holdsworth/Pagenaud        Stone Brothers Ford    1m12.0095s  Qual one
17.  Moffat/Kox                 Dick Johnson Ford      1m12.0436s  Qual one
18.  Johnson/Papis              Dick Johnson Ford      1m12.0519s  Qual one
19.  Patrizi/di Grassi          Tekno Holden           1m12.0682s  Qual one
20.  Ritter/Taylor              Garry Rogers Holden    1m12.1432s  Qual one
21.  Bright/Sarrazin            Brad Jones Holden      1m12.1475s  Qual one
22.  Murphy/Wilson              Kelly Holden           1m12.2718s  Qual one
23.  Reindler/Montagny          Kelly Holden           1m12.2786s  Qual one
24.  Tander/Briscoe             HRT Holden             1m12.3608s  Qual one
25.  Blanchard/Andretti         Kelly Holden           1m12.4528s  Qual one
26.  Douglas/Conway             Dumbrell Holden        1m12.7148s  Qual one
27.  Fiore/Morbidelli           Triple F/DJR Ford      1m12.7304s  Qual one
28.  Wall/Campbell-Walter       Britek/BJR Holden