Whincup quickest in qualifying at Bathurst
Jamie Whincup was quickest in today’s qualifying session at the Bathurst 1000. The Triple Eight Race Engineering driver and fellow top ten finishers will participate in tomorrow’s top ten shootout.
Whincup’s best lap was a 2:07.7145, less than eight-hundredths of a second faster than Brad Jones Racing’s Fabian Coulthard who ended the session in second. Mark Winterbottom finished in third for Ford Performance Racing ahead of his team mate Will Davison.
All three Ford Performance Racing Falcons qualified in the top ten with David Reynold’s setting the tenth quickest time. While both Triple Eight Race Engineering Commodores finished in the top five with Craig Lowndes qualifying in fifth for tomorrow’s top ten shootout.
Two Stone Brothers Racing Falcons made it into the top ten, with Shane van Gisbergen qualifying sixth and Tim Slade seventh, whilst their team mate Lee Holdsworth qualified 15th.
Garth Tander was eighth for the Holden Racing Team, even though the team had to quickly repair Tander’s Commodore after he made contact with the tyre wall at Griffin’s Bend in the early stages of the session as a result of a lock up. Steve Owen qualified in ninth for Paul Morris Motorsport.
Those who finished outside the top ten will start the Bathurst 1000 in the position in which they finished in today’s qualifying session. Cameron Waters qualified the Kelly Racing wild card entry in 29th and last place, almost three seconds down on Whincup’s provisional pole time.
The top ten shootout takes place at 16:30 AEST on Saturday.
