Tailem Bend Supercars: Whincup recovers from spin to claim pole

Whincup trailed down in 21st position after spinning out on his own at turn 12, but propelled himself to the top of the timesheets as soon as the second set of runs began with a time of 1m50.137s.

Whincup’s lap was over half second quicker than first run pacesetter Rick Kelly, but the Red Bull Holden’s pole remains provisional at present, with stewards investigating the manner in which he re-entered the track following his earlier off.

The 35-year-old nearly made contact with James Golding, who had to take evasive action by going over the grass.

"I couldn’t see a thing and I waited for, it felt like five minutes, waiting, waiting, and eventually you just have to go," Whincup said.

"Was that James Golding? I owe him a beer Sunday night."

Kelly was unable to improve on his previous benchmark, allowing Shane van Gisbergen to qualify second and lock out the front-row for Triple Eight Engineering.

Michael Caruso also managed to improve on Kelly time’s, demoting his Nissan teammate to fourth.

Standings leader Scott McLaughlin ended up fifth and the best of the Fords, albeit 0.669s off the pace of pole sitter Whincup.

Van Gisbergen overtook McLaughlin on the penultimate lap but mysteriously slowed down at turn 3, forcing the latter to abort his final flyer. 

The awkward run-in between the two championship contenders is also under investigation by the stewards.

After McLaughlin, Mark Winterbottom was next up in sixth and ahead of Chaz Mostert and Cameron Waters, with Tim Slade and Garth Tander completing the top 10.

Craig Lowndes endured a difficult qualifying session and wounded up 25th, three places ahead of Fabian Coulthard.

Update: Both Whicup and McLaughlin were cleared of any wrongdoing by the stewards following post-qualifying investigation.

Qualifying results:

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Laps	Time	Gap
1	1	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	5	1'50.1371
2	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	6	1'50.2943	0.1572
3	23	Michael Caruso	Nissan Altima	5	1'50.6964	0.5593
4	15	Rick Kelly	Nissan Altima	5	1'50.7826	0.6455
5	17	Scott McLaughlin	Ford Falcon FG X	5	1'50.8069	0.6698
6	5	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG X	5	1'50.9940	0.8569
7	55	Chaz Mostert	Ford Falcon FG X	6	1'51.0415	0.9044
8	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Falcon FG X	5	1'51.2175	1.0804
9	14	Tim Slade	Holden Commodore ZB	5	1'51.2219	1.0848
10	33	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore ZB	5	1'51.2454	1.1083
11	230	Will Davison	Ford Falcon FG X	4	1'51.3326	1.1955
12	8	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	4	1'51.4100	1.2729
13	21	Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore ZB	5	1'51.4329	1.2958
14	18	Lee Holdsworth   Jason Bright	Holden Commodore ZB	5	1'51.4775	1.3404
15	19	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	5	1'51.4849	1.3478
16	34	James Golding	Holden Commodore ZB	5	1'51.5193	1.3822
17	9	David Reynolds	Holden Commodore ZB	6	1'51.5602	1.4231
18	7	Andre Heimgartner	Nissan Altima	5	1'51.5823	1.4452
19	4	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	6	1'51.5901	1.4530
20	99	Anton de	Holden Commodore ZB	5	1'51.6773	1.5402
21	78	Simona de Silvestro	Nissan Altima	5	1'51.8424	1.7053
22	12	Fabian Coulthard	Ford Falcon FG X	5	1'51.8455	1.7084
23	2	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	5	1'51.8571	1.7200
24	25	James Courtney	Holden Commodore ZB	6	1'51.9839	1.8468
25	888	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore ZB	5	1'52.1635	2.0264
26	56	Richie Stanaway	Ford Falcon FG X	5	1'52.1903	2.0532
27	42	Kurt Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	5	1'53.9438	3.8067
28	35	Todd Hazelwood	Ford Falcon FG X	5	1'54.2403	4.1032