» V8s: Whincup wins Perth poles

Defending V8 Supercars Champion has claimed pole position for both of today’s Trading Post Perth Challenge races at Barbagallo Raceway.

The TeamVodafone driver beat yesterday’s race-winner Mark Winterbottom to top spot by the narrowest of margins in the day’s first qualifying session, before going out again to claim top spot in the second session from team-mate Craig Lowndes.

With today’s action featuring two fifteen-minute qualifying sessions before the day’s two 50-lap races, it was important for all concerned that they had incident free qualifying runs.

The first session, run on Dunlop’s harder tyre compound, proved relatively straightforward, with Whincup edging out Winterbottom by less than three-thousandths of a second – equivalent to just 10 centimetres on this 2.4-kilometre circuit – to claim top spot.

Winterbottom’s team-mate and former points leader Will Davison will start from third place, sharing the second row of the grid with Lee Holdsworth.

Continuing his solid qualifying form from yesterday, Jason Bright will start from fifth place, with FPR wild child David Reynolds in sixth in his Bottle-O sponsored Ford. The top ten is completed by tim Slade, Fabian Coulthard, Michael Patrizi (his best performance of the season) and his Tekno team-mate Jonathon Webb.

By contrast, Craig Lowndes had another poor session and will line up 14th, while the factory TOLL HRTs of James Courtney (17th) and Garth Tander (20th) start even further down the field.

The second session produced a little more drama, with Tax Douglas bringing out a red flag with less than two minutes left on the session. The Lucas Dumbrell Holden driver slid into the gravel trap, leading to the full-course stoppage while his car was retrieved.

With less than 90 seconds left on the clock when the track opened for the rest of the session, some drivers were able to scramble around on their out-lap just quick enough to pump out one more timed lap.

Taking advantage of his prime pit box position at pit exit, Whincup was able to circulate quickly enough to get his flying lap started before the session ended, and posted a 55.2889-second lap-time to take top spot from team-mate Craig Lowndes.

It’s an all-FPR second row, with Will Davison beating Mark Winterbottom into third spot, while their stablemate David Reynolds starts from fifth.

Russell Ingall had actually posted the fifth-fastest time, but his result was excluded and so he will start from the back of the grid.

The top-ten was completed by Fabian Coulthard, Shane van Gisbergen, James Courtney, Michael Patrizi and Tim Slade.

2012 V8 Supercars Trading Post Perth Challenge – Race 2 Qualifying Results:

	Driver	Entry / Team	Result
1.	Jamie Whincup	Team Vodafone / Triple 8 Racing	56.3260
2.	Mark Winterbottom	Orrcon Steel / Ford Performance Racing	+ 0.0029
3.	Will Davison	Trading Post / Ford Performance Racing	+ 0.0179
4.	Lee Holdsworth	Irwin Racing / Stone Brothers Racing	+ 0.1374
5.	Jason Bright	Team BOC / Brad Jones Racing	+ 0.1923
6.	David Reynolds	The Bottle-O Racing Team / Rod Nash	+ 0.2803
7.	Tim Slade	Lucky 7 Racing / Stone Brothers Racing	+ 0.3483
8.	Fabian Coulthard	Lockwood Racing / Brad Jones Racing	+ 0.3901
9.	Michael Patrizi	Tekno Autosports	+ 0.4015
10.	Jonathon Webb	Tekno Autosports	+ 0.4086
11.	Dean Fiore	Jim Beam Racing / Dick Johnson Racing	+ 0.4087
12.	Shane van Gisbergen	SP Tools / Stone Brothers Racing	+ 0.4097
13.	James Moffat	Team Norton / Dick Johnson Racing	+ 0.4498
14.	Craig Lowndes	Team Vodafone / Triple 8 Racing	+ 0.5356
15.	Rick Kelly	Jack Daniel’s / Kelly Racing	+ 0.5394
16.	Michael Caruso	Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport	+ 0.5554
17.	James Courtney	TOLL / Holden Racing Team	+ 0.5558
18.	Alexandre Prémat	Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport	+ 0.6058
19.	Russell Ingall	Supercheap Auto / Walkinshaw Racing	+ 0.6092
20.	Garth Tander	TOLL / Holden Racing Team	+ 0.6466
21.	Todd Kelly	Jack Daniel’s / Kelly Racing	+ 0.6645
22.	Tony D’Alberto	HIFLEX Racing / Tony D’Alberto Racing	+ 0.7500
23.	Steve Owen	VIP Petfoods / Dick Johnson Racing	+ 0.7697
24.	Steven Johnson	Jim Beam Racing / Dick Johnson Racing	+ 0.8207
25.	Greg Murphy	Pepsi Max Crew / Kelly Racing	+ 0.8621
26.	David Wall	Wilson Security / Brad Jones Racing	+ 0.9121
27.	Taz Douglas	Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport	+ 1.0046
28.	Karl Reindler	Fair Dinkum Sheds / Kelly Racing	+ 1.1494

2012 V8 Supercars Trading Post Perth Challenge – Race 3 Qualifying Results:

	Driver	Entry / Team	Result
1.	Jamie Whincup	Team Vodafone / Triple 8 Racing	55.2889
2.	Craig Lowndes	Team Vodafone / Triple 8 Racing	+ 0.1336
3.	Will Davison	Trading Post / Ford Performance Racing	+ 0.2875
4.	Mark Winterbottom	Orrcon Steel / Ford Performance Racing	+ 0.3022
5.	David Reynolds	The Bottle-O Racing Team / Rod Nash	+ 0.4425
6.	Fabian Coulthard	Lockwood Racing / Brad Jones Racing	+ 0.4569
7.	Shane van Gisbergen	SP Tools / Stone Brothers Racing	+ 0.4861
8.	James Courtney	TOLL / Holden Racing Team	+ 0.5602
9.	Michael Patrizi	Tekno Autosports	+ 0.5841
10.	Tim Slade	Lucky 7 Racing / Stone Brothers Racing	+ 0.5906
11.	Rick Kelly	Jack Daniel’s / Kelly Racing	+ 0.5976
12.	Garth Tander	TOLL / Holden Racing Team	+ 0.5977
13.	Lee Holdsworth	Irwin Racing / Stone Brothers Racing	+ 0.6114
14.	Dean Fiore	Jim Beam Racing / Dick Johnson Racing	+ 0.6296
15.	James Moffat	Team Norton / Dick Johnson Racing	+ 0.6335
16.	Jason Bright	Team BOC / Brad Jones Racing	+ 0.6594
17.	Jonathon Webb	Tekno Autosports	+ 0.6809
18.	Tony D’Alberto	HIFLEX Racing / Tony D’Alberto Racing	+ 0.7019
19.	Todd Kelly	Jack Daniel’s / Kelly Racing	+ 0.7422
20.	Steve Owen	VIP Petfoods / Dick Johnson Racing	+ 0.7620
21.	Michael Caruso	Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport	+ 0.9043
22.	David Wall	Wilson Security / Brad Jones Racing	+ 0.9273
23.	Steven Johnson	Jim Beam Racing / Dick Johnson Racing	+ 0.9319
24.	Greg Murphy	Pepsi Max Crew / Kelly Racing	+ 1.0803
25.	Alexandre Prémat	Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport	+ 1.0811
26.	Taz Douglas	Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport	+ 1.1833
27.	Karl Reindler	Fair Dinkum Sheds / Kelly Racing	+ 1.2334
28.	Russell Ingall	Supercheap Auto / Walkinshaw Racing	Disallowed