Winterbottom and Davison lock out front row

31 March 2012

Frosty qualifies 1st

FORD Performance Racing's Mark Winterbottom and Will Davison will start from the front row of the grid for today's Race 3 of the V8 Supercars Championship at Symmons Plains in Tasmania.

Winterbottom clocked a 51.4020s lap to take his 22nd career pole and first since Townsville last year, while teammate Davison locked out the front row, just 0.09s slower.

"I wasn't sure how we'd go then, but on the second lap it was 90 percent right - I wasn't really expecting that from practice," said Winterbottom.

"It's a great reward for the team and their hard work - when to get that fast lap in was really tough," said Davison.

Shane van Gisbergen was third with reigning champion Jamie Whincup fourth and his TeamVodafone teammate Craig Lowndes fifth.

Birthday boy Garth Tander was sixth from David Reynolds' Bottle-O Falcon.

The big surprise of the session was Team iSelect's Taz Douglas, the Victorian rookie posting the eighth fastest time - a personal best and also a best for his Lucas Dumbrell-owned team.

The top 10 was rounded out by Jonathon Webb and an improved Steven Johnson.

Just 0.87s covered the top 26 cars in one of the tightest sessions of the year.

The 59-lap race will be held at 4.10pm this afternoon.

 

Here's how the session unfolded in our minute-by-minute live update coverage:

Hi everyone, welcome to Symmons Plains on the outskirts of Launceston and qualifying for Race 3 of the V8 Supercars Championship.

We'll be bringing you live updates from the track on who is setting the pace in the hectic 20-minute session.

With 28 cars and a 2.4-kilometre circuit, there's not much room to move and there's no doubt there will be some drama as we've seen here in previous years.

We will count down on the time remaining with our updates - hearing there's a major head wind down the back straight ... and a big tail wind down the main straight towards the hairpin.

20m to go: Cars leave the pits, some on hards and some on soft tyres. Todd Kelly doesn't leave the pit lane .. he's car on the 'go' jacks.

17m to go: Whincup runs really wide at hairpin, messy first flyer and then ruins the next lap by running wide at turn 2.

16m to go: Webb, fastest in Practice 4, fires his first shot and goes to the top, 51.7688s as Holdsworth fires off at turn 2.

15m30s to go: Webb goes on with it, fastest to 2nd sector on the next lap, slightly slower, 51.7844s but still sits on top from Owen, van Gisbergen, Patrizi, Moffat.

15m to go: Winterbottom and Davison yet to set a time.

14m30s to go: Both Todd Kelly and Alex Premat only just left the pit lane .. they didnt want to go out and run on hard tyres before they run on softs. They wanted to solely run on softs and not get tricked into the grip levels of the hards.

13m30s to go: Order 19, 18, 49, 3, 9, 91, 47, 12, 888, 4. It's very mixed up at the moment!

13m to go: Reynolds steps up in the Bottle-O Ford, fast on Friday, fast on Saturday and goes to second, 0.06s down on Webb.

12m to go: Winterbottom jumps to 3rd as Davison sets fastest first split time. He's flying! 0.12s up to second split .. end of the lap and it's 51.6798s to jump to the top.

11m to go: Order 6, 19, 55, 5, 18, 7, 49, 3, 33, 9.
Davison goes slightly quicker, 51.6578s to have 0.11s over Webb.

10m to go: Whincup jumps to third .. it's busy busy out there, traffic everywhere and a busy piece of road.

8m to go: Tander jumps to top .. 51.5082s ... Slade spins down at the hairpin. Order has jumbled .. Taz Douglas jumps to fifth - wow!
van Gisbergen jumps to top on 51.5082s .. then Tander, Davison, Whincup, Douglas, Webb, Holdsworth, Lowndes, Winterbottom, Slade.

6m to go: Pit lane full of cars .. track not quite as busy at the moment. Get ready for the final flurry as cars come charging back out to have another run.

5m to go: Order 9, 2, 6, 1, 30, 19, 4, 888, 5, 47.

4m to go: Major lock up for Douglas at turn 2, he reckons he's destroyed a tyre.

3m30s to go: Lowndes goes a little quicker, jumps to third spot.

3m to go: Reynolds jumps to fourth, 0.14s off the benchmark of van Gisbergen.

2m to go: Winterbottom jumps up to third .. it's van Gisbergen still on top - can he get his first career pole?

1m30s to go: Davison goes quicker ... bang to the top! 51.5019s. Winterbottom follows him across line and beats it! 51.4762s .. FPR now 1-2.

45s to go: 5, 6, 9, 888, 2, 1, 55, 30, 19, 4.

15s to go: Winterbottom improves to 51.4020s, 0.09s on Davison. Whincup jumps to fourth.

Chequered Flag: Wow .. hell of a session! Winterbottom pole from Davison, van Gisbergen, Whincup, Lowndes, Tander, Reynolds, Douglas, Webb and Johnson.