The Red Bull Racing Australia team has continued its one-lap dominance of this weekend’s Tyrepower Tasmania 400, with Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes once again locked out the front row in qualifying, matching the feat they achieved ahead of yesterday’s two races, both of which were won by Whincup.
In today’s 20-minute session, Whincup repeated the dose over his teammate, edging out Lowndes around the Symmons Plains circuit’s 2.4-kilometre layout by 0.11 seconds.
The Volvo of Scott McLaughlin and the Erebus AMG of Will Davison secured the second row of the grid with impressive qualifying efforts, lining up ahead of the Holdens of James Courtney and Shane van Gisbergen.
Courtney’s Walkinshaw Racing stablemates Tim Slade (seventh) and Nick Percat (ninth) ensured three of the outfit’s four cars qualified inside the top-ten, while the final Commodore of Garth Tander was beset with power steering problems which consigned him to a lowly 24th.
Aside from David Wall’s top-ten effort in his Dick Johnson Racing Ford, it was a poor session for the ‘Blue Oval’, made all the more embarrassing by a tangle between FPR stablemates Mark Winterbottom and Jack Perkins.
Perkins was exiting the pits and joined the track right in the path of Winterbottom, who was on a flying lap. The pair made heavy contact, which left Perkins dead last on the timesheets.
Today’s 200-kilometre finale kicks off at 15:55 local time (GMT+11).
2014 V8 Supercars Tyrepower Tasmania 400 – Race 3 Qualifying:
| Driver | Team / Entry | Result | |||
| 1. | Jamie Whincup |  |
Red Bull Racing / Holden Commodore VF |  |
50.968 |
| 2. | Craig Lowndes | |
Red Bull Racing / Holden Commodore VF | |
+ 0.117 |
| 3. | Scott McLaughlin |  |
Valvoline Racing Polestar GRM / Volvo S60 |  |
+ 0.213 |
| 4. | Will Davison | |
Erebus Motorsport / Mercedes E63 AMG |  |
+ 0.214 |
| 5. | James Courtney | |
Holden Racing Team / Holden Commodore VF | |
+ 0.307 |
| 6. | Shane van Gisbergen | |
TEKNO VIP Petfoods / Holden Commodore VF | |
+ 0.322 |
| 7. | Tim Slade | |
SuperCheap Auto Racing / Holden Commodore VF | |
+ 0.341 |
| 8. | David Wall | |
Wilson Security Racing / Ford Falcon FG |  |
+ 0.366 |
| 9. | Nick Percat | |
Walkinshaw Racing/ Holden Commodore VF | |
+ 0.391 |
| 10. | Lee Holdsworth | |
Erebus Motorsport / Mercedes E63 AMG | |
+ 0.391 |
| 11. | Fabian Coulthard | |
Lockwood Racing / Holden Commodore VF | |
+ 0.409 |
| 12. | Michael Caruso | |
Nissan Hornets / Nissan Altima |  |
+ 0.424 |
| 13. | Mark Winterbottom | |
Pepsi Max Crew FPR / Ford Falcon FG | |
+ 0.434 |
| 14. | Scott Pye | |
Wilson Security Racing / Ford Falcon FG | |
+ 0.448 |
| 15. | David Reynolds | |
The Bottle-O Racing Team / Ford Falcon FG | |
+ 0.462 |
| 16. | Jason Bright | |
Team BOC / Holden Commodore VF | |
+ 0.462 |
| 17. | Chaz Mostert | |
Pepsi Max Crew FPR / Ford Falcon FG | |
+ 0.485 |
| 18. | Rick Kelly | |
Jack Daniel’s Racing / Nissan Altima | |
+ 0.507 |
| 19. | Russell Ingall | |
Repair Management / Holden Commodore VF | |
+ 0.566 |
| 20. | Dale Wood | |
Team ADVAM / Holden Commodore VF | |
+ 0.566 |
| 21. | Todd Kelly | |
Jack Daniel’s Racing / Nissan Altima | |
+ 0.600 |
| 22. | James Moffat | |
Nissan Hornets / Nissan Altima | |
+ 0.612 |
| 23. | Robert Dahlgren |  |
Valvoline Racing Polestar GRM / Volvo S60 | |
+ 0.720 |
| 24. | Garth Tander | |
Holden Racing Team / Holden Commodore VF | |
+ 1.015 |
| 25. | Jack Perkins | |
Jeld-Wen / Ford Falcon FG | |
+ 1.404 |
Image via V8 Supercars Championship Media
Richard Bailey
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