Jamie Whincup on pole for Sandown

Jamie Whincup put his Team Vodafone Falcon on pole position for the first of the three V8 Supercars sprint races at Sandown Park this weekend.
Whincup put in a sensational lap right at the end of the session not only to secure the top spot on the grid, but also set a new record lap in the process.

With the return of the sprint race format at Sandown that was last run during the 2002 season, the records tumbled during qualifying with no fewer than 14 drivers braking the previous qualifying record of 1min 10.4430secs that was set by James Courtney last year.

It was a Ford lockout as the BF Falcon’s filled the top three places, while it’s replacement; the FG01 was waiting in the wings.

Lining up alongside Whincup on the front row will be Mark Winterbottom a mere three tenths behind. Will Davison produced his best qualifying result of his career, in third with 1m 10.0328s

While the best Holden driver was to be Rick Kelly in his HSV Commodore in fourth with a time of 1m 10.0588s

Another best qualifying performance came from Fabien Coulthard, planting his Glenfords Falcon on the fifth spot with 1m 10.0800s.

Meanwhile names familiar and not so familiar made up the top ten, Russell Ingall, Steven Richards, Toddy Kelly, Craig Lowndes and Jason Richards.

Championship leader going into Sandown Park, Garth Tander could only muster twelfth place.