Jamie Whincup has moved a step closer to claiming his fourth V8 Supercars Championship title by winning pole position for today’s closing race of the Winton 300.
The TeamVodafone driver narrowly edged out the Ford Performance Racing duo of Will Davison and his main championship rival Mark Winterbottom to claim top spot, with the trio covered by less than five-hundredths of a second on the timesheets.
Fourth-fastest went to Whincup’s team-mate Craig Lowndes, who failed to improve on his earlier flying lap time after being badly baulked by Shane van Gisbergen on his next flying lap.
The veteran lines up ahead of Jonathon Webb, who showed a remarkable turnaround from yesterday’s qualifying session to claim his sixth top-five starting position of the year in his Tekno Holden. He starts ahead of Jason Bright, David Reynolds, Michael Caruso, Fabian Coulthard and Lee Holdsworth.
Van Gisbergen finished eleventh-quickest, costing himself valuable track time for his blocking of Lowndes when the stewards hit him with a one-minute pit-lane holding penalty for is troubles.
He lines up one spot ahead of David Wall, who delivered by far his best qualifying performance of his V8 Supercars career with the twelfth-fastest time in his Brad Jones-run Holden.
Fellow V8 rookie Alexandre Premat also had a promising qualifying session, with the former DTM racer qualifying 14th-quickest.
2012 V8 Supercars Winton 300 – Race 2 Qualifying:
| Driver | Entry / Team | Qualifying Time | ||
| 1. | Jamie Whincup |  |
Team Vodafone / Triple 8 Racing | 1:22.7970 |
| 2. | Will Davison |  |
Trading Post / Ford Performance Racing | + 0.0259 |
| 3. | Mark Winterbottom | |
Orrcon Steel / Ford Performance Racing | + 0.0506 |
| 4. | Craig Lowndes | |
Team Vodafone / Triple 8 Racing | + 0.2258 |
| 5. | Jonathon Webb | |
Tekno Autosports | + 0.2529 |
| 6. | Jason Bright | |
Team BOC / Brad Jones Racing | + 0.2982 |
| 7. | David Reynolds | |
The Bottle-O Racing Team / Rod Nash | + 0.3159 |
| 8. | Michael Caruso | |
Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport | + 0.3666 |
| 9. | Fabian Coulthard | |
Lockwood Racing / Brad Jones Racing | + 0.3670 |
| 10. | Lee Holdsworth | |
Irwin Racing / Stone Brothers Racing | + 0.3875 |
| 11. | Shane van Gisbergen | |
SP Tools / Stone Brothers Racing | + 0.4189 |
| 12. | David Wall | |
Wilson Security / Brad Jones Racing | + 0.4956 |
| 13. | Garth Tander | |
TOLL / Holden Racing Team | + 0.5058 |
| 14. | Alexandre Prémat | |
Fujitsu Racing / Garry Rogers Motorsport | + 0.5185 |
| 15. | James Courtney | |
TOLL / Holden Racing Team | + 0.5713 |
| 16. | James Moffat | |
Team Norton / Dick Johnson Racing | + 0.5808 |
| 17. | Taz Douglas | |
Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport | + 0.6743 |
| 18. | Dean Fiore | |
Jim Beam Racing / Dick Johnson Racing | + 0.7154 |
| 19. | Tim Slade | |
Lucky 7 Racing / Stone Brothers Racing | + 0.7273 |
| 20. | Steve Owen | |
VIP Petfoods / Dick Johnson Racing | + 0.7514 |
| 21. | Rick Kelly | |
Jack Daniel’s / Kelly Racing | + 0.7606 |
| 22. | Michael Patrizi | |
Tekno Autosports | + 0.7879 |
| 23. | Russell Ingall | |
Supercheap Auto / Walkinshaw Racing | + 0.8309 |
| 24. | Tim Blanchard | |
Jack Daniel’s / Kelly Racing | + 0.8596 |
| 25. | Steven Johnson | |
Jim Beam Racing / Dick Johnson Racing | + 0.8629 |
| 26. | Tony D’Alberto | |
HIFLEX Racing / Tony D’Alberto Racing | + 0.8849 |
| 27. | Karl Reindler | |
Fair Dinkum Sheds / Kelly Racing | + 0.8884 |
| 28. | Greg Murphy | |
Pepsi Max Crew / Kelly Racing | + 1.0230 |
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Richard Bailey
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