Provisional pole for opening race winner Jamie Whincup in Adelaide
A perfect start to the 2020 Supercars season is on the cards for Jamie Whincup after the Triple Eight driver secured provisional pole for this afternoon’s second 250km race in Adelaide.
Set to roll out last in the Top Ten Shootout, Whincup showed the pace of the #88 Holden Commodore, putting in the fastest qualifying lap to get into the best spot possible ahead of the shootout.
The two-part session set the grid from positions 11 to 24 for this afternoon’s race, the top ten hitting the Adelaide Parklands Circuit shortly to take part in the shootout and finalise the grid.
Qualifying session one was run for those who hadn’t managed to crack the top ten in third practice on Friday, the tep four making it through to the second qualifying outing just like Saturday.
After enduring a tough Saturday where he copped a multitude of penalties on and off the track, Jack Smith’s qualifying came to an early end thanks to a crash on his first flying lap, hitting the Turn 8 fence in the Brad Jones Racing Commodore.
The delay to the session meant there was just over five minutes remaining with the second set of flying laps underway, Lee Holdsworth leading the order for Tickford Racing albeit far from the pace of Saturday qualifying.
Holdsworth was able to further improve and top the session at its conclusion, heading up DJR Team Penske’s Fabian Coulthard, Tickford team-mate Jack Le Brocq and Kelly Racing driver Rick Kelly to make it through to the next stage of qualifying.
Knocked out and setting the grid from 15th back was Todd Hazelwood, Scott Pye, Bryce Fullwood, Macauley Jones, Andre Heimgartner, Garry Jacobson, Zane Goddard, James Courtney, Chris Pither and Jack Smith.
Saturday race winner Jamie Whincup was the first to stamp his authority on the final knockout part of qualifying, a 1:20.2 the best the Triple Eight driver could manage halfway through the session partly due to higher track temperatures than the day before.
After pulling off a memorable shootout lap yesterday with a power steering issue, David Reynolds had to sit out qualifying after his Erebus Motorsport Holden Commodore dropped a cylinder, resulting in a grid position of 14th for the afternoon’s race.
Coulthard came close to toppling Whincup, just over one-thousandth of a second down on the Holden driver as a tenth covered the top five in the final minute.
The late surge of lap times saw Cam Waters set the new benchmark in his Tickford Racing car but he was quickly displaced by Whincup, the race one winner taking provisional pole ahead of the shootout.
With the order for the shootout set, the pack will roll out in reverse order of Whincup, Waters, Scott McLaughlin, Will Davison, Shane van Gisbergen, Lee Holdsworth, Chaz Mostert, Fabian Coulthard, Rick Kelly and Anton de Pasquale.
