Photo: Red Bull Racing Australia

Jamie Whincup on provisional Bathurst 1000 pole position

Jamie Whincup has claimed a provisional pole position for the Bathurst 1000, beating main rival and Ford driver Mark Winterbottom by a mere 0.0558 seconds.

It nearly ended in tears for the champion, as he clipped the wall on the exit of The Dipper during the session. Whincup pitted to look over the damage, only to shortly return to set the pole lap.

Jason Bright in the Brad Jones Racing Holden Commodore was third fastest, closely followed by James Courtney and Shane Van Gisbergen.

Whincup’s team mate Craig Lowndes claimed the sixth fastest time ahead of Will Davison and David Reynolds. Garry Rogers Motorsport duo Scott McLaughlin and Alexandre Prémat rounded out the top ten.

Mattias Ekström and Andy Priaulx were in the top ten for the majority of the session, but dropped to 18th position as the session drew to an end. The top Mercedes driver was Lee Holdsworth in 12th position and the fastest Nissan driver was Michael Caruso in 17th position.

A final practice session will follow tomorrow morning before the top ten qualifying shootout at 17.00 local time, deciding the first ten positions on the grid.