Photo: Lockwood Racing

Fabian Coulthard secures Melbourne race one pole

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Fabian Coulthard secured pole position for the first race of the non-championship round at Melbourne. The Holden driver was fastest by just over three tenths of a second ahead of Team BOC driver Jason Bright in second.

A two-place grid drop penalty however means that Bright is going to start fourth. Bright got the penalty for doing one lap extra in the first practice session, passing the finishing flag twice.

Shane van Gisbergen was third fastest ahead of Red Bull Racing Australia drivers Craigh Lowndes and Jamie Whincup.

David Reynolds was fastest Ford driver in sixth position, just under one second from the pole time.

Tekno Autosports’ Jonathon Webb was seventh fastest ahead of Scott McLaughlin, Will Davison and Mark Winterbottom.

Best of the Nissan drivers was Norton 360 Racing’s Michael Caruso in 12th position, with fellow Nissan driver Todd Kelly in 13th position.

Tim Slade secured Erebus Motorsport’s so far best qualifying position in 14th position with the Mercedes E63 AMG, 1.6569 seconds from pole.

There was contact between Jonny Reid and Alexandre Prémat during the qualifying session as Reid got in the way of the Frenchman, resulting in a lot of front-end damage for Prémat who ended up in 23rd position.