Outoging V8 Supercars Championship winner Jamie Whincup will start Saturday’s second 125-kilometre race at the Sydney 500 from pole position after topping the second 10-minute qualifying session at Sydney Olympic Park.
The Red Bull Racing driver put in a last-gasp effort to snatch pole position with a stunning time of 1:27.642 to edge out David Reynolds for top spot by just over one-tenth of a second.
The second qualifying session followed a similar pattern to the opening exchange – in which championship leader Mark Winterbottom claimed a crucial pole – in that Shane van Gisbergen was the early pace-setter.
Reynolds put on fresh tyres to move to top spot before he was beaten by Whincup’s late effort; the pair demoted van Gisbergen to a second-row starting position alongside championship leader Winterbottom.
James Courtney, Scott McLaughlin, Scott Pye and Lee Holdsworth locked out the third and fourth rows of the grid.
Winterbottom’s sole championship rival Craig Lowndes recovered from a disastrous opening qualifying session to line up ninth-fastest in his hastily-repaired Red Bull Racing Holden, with Jason Bright rounding out the top-ten.
Race 35, held over 37 laps, will start at 4:50pm local time (GMT +11).
| 2015 V8 Supercars Coates Hire Sydney 500 – Race 35 Qualifying Top-10 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | Driver | Team / Entry | Time | |||
| 1. | Jamie Whincup | Red Bull Racing / Triple 8 |  |
1:27.6420 | ||
| 2. | David Reynolds | The Bottle-O Racing Team |  |
+ 0.1327 | ||
| 3. | Shane van Gisbergen | TEKNO Autosports | |
+ 0.1360 | ||
| 4. | Mark Winterbottom | Prodrive Racing Australia | |
+ 0.1608 | ||
| 5. | James Courtney | Holden Racing Team | |
+ 0.1956 | ||
| 6. | Scott McLaughlin | Polestar GRM Volvo |  |
+ 0.3669 | ||
| 7. | Scott Pye | DJR Team Penske | |
+ 0.4794 | ||
| 8. | Lee Holdsworth | Walkinshaw Racing | |
+ 0.6855 | ||
| 9. | Craig Lowndes | Red Bull Racing / Triple 8 | |
+ 0.6933 | ||
| 10. | Jason Bright | Brad Jones Racing | |
+ 0.7856 | ||
Image via Motorsport.com
Geoff Burke
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