With qualifying spread out over three races as the V8 Supercar seasons heads into endurance racing territory, Red Bull’s Whincup won the opening 20-minute session on Saturday afternoon as he held off a fast-finishing Garth Tander.
Whincup’s time of 1:08.573 was 0.15 faster than Tander, with the fastest time meaning Whincup’s partner Dumbrell started the second qualifying race – one fought out entirely by the co-drivers – from pole position.
Dumbrell didn’t let his team-mate down either, leading from start to finish to edge out Jonathon Webb – Shane van Gisbergen’s co-driver – and Steve Owen (Mark Winterbottom), despite an investigation being launched into a jumped start by the Red Bull driver.
Dumbrell’s fastest time meant Whincup would start race three from pole position late in the afternoon, while Webb’s effort to improve five places in the co-driver’s race ultimately set up an intriguing battle in the final race of the day.
Whincup, though, completed a big afternoon for the No.1 vehicle as he held off van Gisbergen in a thrilling battle to earn pole position for Sunday’s endurance race.
“I really enjoyed that, that was awesome!” said VIP Petfoods driver van Gisbergen in quotes from the V8 Supercar website.
“We had a race similar in 2012, I was behind him the whole way and he fell off – I was hoping to do that same … we were flat the whole way and it was really cool. That was an awesome race.”