Whincup scores Sandown pole
Team Vodafone's Jamie Whincup has taken pole for race one at this weekend's Midas 400 at Sandown
Whincup was over three-tenths of a second faster than his closest rival in the final leg of qualifying, to take a comfortable pole position ahead of a group of drivers including Mark Winterbottom, Will Davison, Rick Kelly and a surprisingly strong performance by Fabian Coulthard.
Another driver to do well was Russell Ingall in his Supercheap Auto Holden in sixth place ahead of Steven Richards. Todd Kelly was eighth fastest, just 0.0004 of a second faster than Craig Lowndes with Jason Richards rounding out the top ten.
After setting the fastest time in yesterday's practice, Holden Racing Team driver Garth Tander was unable to turn that into qualifying speed, and will start 12th, one place ahead of teammate Mark Skaife and one place behind Jeld-Wen Motorsport's James Courtney.
Just behind Mark Skaife is Valvoline Cummins driver Lee Holdsworth, whose promising start to the season has turned a little sour in recent rounds.
19th for Greg Murphy was not where he wanted to be starting the weekend after recently debuting a new car, while the two Brad Jones Racing Commodores of Andrew Jones and Cameron McConville will start 21st and 24th.
However, Jason Bright, who also recently debuted a new car, had an even more disappointing session and will start 28th, second-last on the grid.
Pos Driver Make Time 1. Jamie Whincup Ford 1:09.6987 2. Mark Winterbottom Ford 1:10.0184 + 0.3197 3. Will Davison Ford 1:10.0328 + 0.3341 4. Rick Kelly Holden 1:10.0588 + 0.3601 5. Fabian Coulthard Ford 1:10.0800 + 0.3813 6. Russell Ingall Holden 1:10.1399 + 0.4412 7. Steven Richards Ford 1:10.1750 + 0.4763 8. Todd Kelly Holden 1:10.1754 + 0.4767 9. Craig Lowndes Ford 1:10.2646 + 0.5659 10. Jason Richards Holden 1:10.5183 + 0.8196 11. James Courtney Ford 1:10.3794 + 0.6807 12. Garth Tander Holden 1:10.4050 + 0.7063 13. Mark Skaife Holden 1:10.4187 + 0.7200 14. Lee Holdsworth Holden 1:10.4387 + 0.7400 15. Paul Dumbrell Holden 1:10.4769 + 0.7782 16. Steven Johnson Ford 1:10.6166 + 0.9179 17. Shane Van Gisbergen Ford 1:10.6738 + 0.9751 18. Andrew Thompson Holden 1:10.7576 + 1.0589 19. Greg Murphy Holden 1:10.8247 + 1.1260 20. Tony D'Alberto Holden 1:10.9508 + 1.2521 21. Andrew Jones Holden 1:10.9803 + 1.2816 22. Shane Price Holden 1:11.0068 + 1.3081 23. Michael Caruso Holden 1:11.0287 + 1.3300 24. Cameron McConville Holden 1:11.0451 + 1.3464 25. Paul Morris Holden 1:11.0718 + 1.3731 26. Marcus Marshall Ford 1:11.4351 + 1.7364 27. Kayne Scott Ford 1:11.6500 + 1.9513 28. Jason Bright Ford 1:11.6990 + 2.0003 29. Michael Patrizi Ford 1:12.2580 + 2.5593
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