Winterbottom takes dominant pole
Ford Performance Racing's Mark Winterbottom took a dominant pole position for the first race of this weekend's racing at Winton Motor Raceway
Winterbottom was dominant in the final two legs of qualifying, half a second faster than next best in the second leg and a whisker under four-tenths faster in the final leg of qualifying.
Alongside Winterbottom will be Team Vodafone's Jamie Whincup, with Jim Beam Racing's Will Davison completing a Ford 1-2-3 on the grid. Just behind Davison will be Holden Racing Team's Garth Tander, Garry Rogers Motorsport's Lee Holdsworth and the second FPR car of Steven Richards.
Michael Caruso completed a great qualifying for the Garry Rogers team with the seventh-fastest time, followed by Rick Kelly, Shane Price in a superb performance with Jason Richards completing the top ten.
Some of the more fancied runners failed to make the top ten runoff, including Todd Kelly and Mark Skaife in eleventh and twelfth, Craig Lowndes in fourteenth, last round runner-up Russell Ingall in fifteenth and James Courtney in seventeenth.
Courtney's teammate Shane van Gisbergen ended up even further down the order in 24th, recovering after a heavy crash in changeable conditions during practice on Friday.
Pos Driver Make Time 1. Mark Winterbottom Ford 1:22.9727 2. Jamie Whincup Ford 1:23.3699 + 0.3972 3. Will Davison Ford 1:23.3950 + 0.4223 4. Garth Tander Holden 1:23.4144 + 0.4417 5. Lee Holdsworth Holden 1:23.4243 + 0.4516 6. Steven Richards Ford 1:23.4651 + 0.4924 7. Michael Caruso Holden 1:23.5305 + 0.5578 8. Rick Kelly Holden 1:23.6947 + 0.7220 9. Shane Price Holden 1:23.8438 + 0.8711 10. Jason Richards Holden 1:23.8788 + 0.9061 11. Todd Kelly Holden 1:23.6998 + 0.7271 12. Mark Skaife Holden 1:23.7186 + 0.7459 13. Paul Dumbrell Holden 1:23.7846 + 0.8119 14. Craig Lowndes Ford 1:23.7971 + 0.8244 15. Russell Ingall Holden 1:23.8608 + 0.8881 16. Fabian Coulthard Ford 1:23.8836 + 0.9109 17. James Courtney Ford 1:23.9262 + 0.9535 18. Andrew Jones Holden 1:24.0339 + 1.0612 19. Andrew Thompson Holden 1:24.1115 + 1.1388 20. Jason Bright Ford 21. Paul Morris Holden 1:24.2463 + 1.2736 22. Cameron McConville Holden 1:24.2650 + 1.2923 23. Steven Johnson Ford 1:24.2676 + 1.2949 24. Shane Van Gisbergen Ford 1:24.3978 + 1.4251 25. Greg Murphy Holden 1:24.6103 + 1.6376 26. Tony D'Alberto Holden 1:24.6713 + 1.6986 27. Marcus Marshall Ford 1:24.7798 + 1.8071 28. Michael Patrizi Ford 1:25.1079 + 2.1352 29. Chris Pither Ford 1:26.3345 + 3.3618
Share Or Save This Story
Winterbottom rejoins Tickford for Supercars endurance rounds
Team 18 confirm Winterbottom-de Pasquale 2025 Supercars change
Supercars team reveals coin toss chassis allocation
How will Verstappen re-adapt to F1 after Nurburgring adventure?
Top 10 F1 drivers of the 1960s
How GM tech accelerated Cadillac's F1 entry
MotoGP chief defends officiating of Catalan GP
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