Craig Lowndes on Gold Coast pole position
Craig Lowndes claimed pole position for the first Gold Coast race of the weekend. The Red Bull Racing Australia driver lapped the circuit in 1:10.9569 and was a mere nine hundreds of a second ahead of fellow Holden driver James Courtney in second.
Garth Tander made it two Holden Racing Team drivers in the top three, claiming position three, just four hundredths of a second ahead of Tony D’Alberto in fourth. Garry Rogers Motorsport youngster Scott McLaughlin made it a Holden 1-2-3-4-5 on the grid.
Best Ford driver was David Reynolds in sixth position, right ahead of the top Nissan driver in the form of Rick Kelly in position seven.
There were several penalties after qualifying, with Michael Caruso getting his fastest time removed for exceeding track limits and Fabian Coulthard being moved from sixth to tenth after missing the mandatory weight check.
Championship leader Jamie Whincup had big problems in qualifying, clipping the wall in turn three and causing a red flag due to debris on the track. The incident saw the officials removing Whincup’s fastest time, meaning that he will start from 25th position.
Whincup’s closest championship rival, Mark Winterbottom, had a dreadful session as well as the Ford driver damaged his steering early on and was unable to get higher than 14th position on the grid.
