John McIntyre to start opening qualifying race from pole

Kiwi John McIntyre will start the opening qualifying race of the afternoon at Sandown from pole position after Will Davison topped the 20 minute qualifying session in the Trading Post Ford.

Davison reset the qualifying lap record for a V8 Supercar around the Melbourne venue by running a 1:09.37s lap in the final minutes.

Garth Tander ensured his co-driver Nick Percat will share the front-row with McIntyre by falling just 0.0072s shy of his rival’s time on his final lap.

Shane van Gisbergen and Craig Lowndes were also within 0.1s of the benchmark time in third and fourth respectively, while David Reynolds, Mark Winterbottom, Steve Owen, Fabian Coulthard, Jonathon Webb and Jamie Whincup completed the top 10.

The top eight drivers were all under the previous record of 1:09.67s record set by Whincup in 2009.

The session ran green for its duration despite the Turn 3 tyre bundle becoming dislodged at the halfway mark.

Several drivers tasted the outfield as they pushed in the cool conditions, with Lowndes among those to surf through the Turn 9 gravel.

Team-mate Whincup meanwhile had multiple offs of his own at Turn 1, including at the start of his final run.

The 20 lap co-driver qualifying race will get underway at 1445, followed by a 20 lap race for the primary drivers at 1638. The results of the second race will determine the grid for Sunday’s Dick Smith Sandown 500.

Each of the qualifying races will count for championship points, with both drivers from the winning car to be awarded 50 points regardless of whether or not they drove.

The situation raises the possibility that Winterbottom, who currently sits one point behind championship leader Whincup, will take the points lead while standing in the garage watching the co-driver race.

See below for the full qualifying session result

See below for Speedcafe.com’s Sandown 500 Race Guide