Whincup on pole in Bahrain
Team Vodafone's Jamie Whincup has taken pole for this weekend's Gulf Air Desert 400 in Bahrain
Whincup just edged out teammate Craig Lowndes for pole position, the two Fords separated by just over two hundredths of a second.
Behind them on the second row are Todd Kelly and Steven Johnson, both recording their best qualifying positions for the year.
Holden Racing Team's Garth Tander will start from fifth, just ahead of Johnson's teammate Will Davison, who might be Tander's teammate next season.
Russell Ingall, Steven Richards, Mark Winterbottom and James Courtney complete the top ten, the two Ford Performance Racing drivers in eighth and ninth struggling a little at a track the team normally excel at.
Just outside the top ten in eleventh and twelfth are Rick Kelly and Jason Bright. Both drivers will make changes for next season, Rick being joined by brother Todd at their parents' team, which will move away from being a sister team to HRT, with Jack Daniels sponsorship moving to the team.
Meanwhile, Bright will move himself and some of his crew to become a part of the Stone Brothers effort, with the fate of the Irwin Tools car driven by Marcus Marshall this season yet to be determined.
This weekend's event sees the first appearance of a Middle Eastern driver in the series, with Bahraini Fahad Al Musalam driving the Team Kiwi Falcon. He comes in with very little experience in a V8 Supercar, his only previous run coming at a test for Garry Rogers earlier this year at Winton.
Pos Driver Make Time 1. Jamie Whincup Ford 1:25.0415 2. Craig Lowndes Ford 1:25.0624 + 0.0209 3. Todd Kelly Holden 1:25.1556 + 0.1141 4. Steven Johnson Ford 1:25.3874 + 0.3459 5. Garth Tander Holden 1:25.4116 + 0.3701 6. Will Davison Ford 1:25.4481 + 0.4066 7. Russell Ingall Holden 1:25.4736 + 0.4321 8. Steven Richards Ford 1:25.5114 + 0.4699 9. Mark Winterbottom Ford 1:25.5967 + 0.5552 10. James Courtney Ford 1:25.7556 + 0.7141 11. Rick Kelly Holden 1:25.5289 + 0.4874 12. Jason Bright Ford 1:25.5405 + 0.4990 13. Shane Van Gisbergen Ford 1:25.6020 + 0.5605 14. Lee Holdsworth Holden 1:25.6282 + 0.5867 15. Paul Dumbrell Holden 1:25.6311 + 0.5896 16. Mark Skaife Holden 1:25.7070 + 0.6655 17. Fabian Coulthard Ford 1:25.7542 + 0.7127 18. Jack Perkins Holden 1:26.0854 + 1.0439 19. Marcus Marshall Ford 1:26.1087 + 1.0672 20. Michael Patrizi Ford 1:26.3251 + 1.2836 21. Cameron McConville Holden 1:25.7938 + 0.7523 22. Michael Caruso Holden 1:25.7999 + 0.7584 23. Greg Murphy Holden 1:25.8425 + 0.8010 24. Jason Richards Holden 1:25.9215 + 0.8800 25. Paul Morris Holden 1:26.0057 + 0.9642 26. Andrew Thompson Holden 1:26.0388 + 0.9973 27. Tony D'Alberto Holden 1:26.0600 + 1.0185 28. Andrew Jones Holden 1:26.0721 + 1.0306 29. Fahad Al Musalam Ford 1:28.8069 + 3.7654
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