Jamie Whincup scores pole for Race 28 at Winton

Jamie Whincup will start the potentially title deciding 28th race of the 2012 V8 Supercars Championship from pole position after a tight qualifying session at Winton.

The TeamVodafone Holden driver’s final qualifying lap of 1:22.80s proved enough to withstand late challenges from the Ford Performance Racing entries of Will Davison and Mark Winterbottom.

Davison’s final effort of 1:22.82s was good enough for the outside of the front-row, while Winterbottom rounded out the 20 minutes with 1:22.85s and 1:22.94s efforts to secure third.

The pole is Whincup’s seventh of the season, moving him to just one behind Davison’s class leading tally heading into the final round in Sydney.

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Craig Lowndes endured a difficult second soft tyre run, which included being baulked by Shane van Gisbergen at Turn 12, and failed to improve from his earlier effort to end up fourth.

Davison had been the fastest of all on the first runs, at which point the top four were separated by just 0.08s.

Jonathon Webb scored his sixth top five starting spot of the year in his Tekno Holden ahead of Jason Bright, David Reynolds, Michael Caruso, Fabian Coulthard and Lee Holdsworth.

Shane van Gisbergen ended the session 11th after receiving a 60s pitlane hold penalty for his incident with Lowndes in the crucial final minutes.

David Wall was just one further position back in 12th – a career best starting position for the Wilson Security Racing Holden driver.

Fujitsu Racing’s Alexandre Premat also enjoyed one of his better sessions to end up 14th, two places higher than the star of yesterday’s race, James Moffat.

Whincup will head to the final round of the championship in Sydney next month with a lead in excess of the 300 points that will remain available if he finishes on the podium today, even if Winterbottom wins the race.

The 200km Race 28 is scheduled to get underway at 1535 local time.

Result: V8 Supercars Race 28 Qualifying, Winton Motor Raceway

1	TeamVodafone	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore VE2	1:22.7970
2	Trading Post FPR Ford	Will Davison	Ford Falcon FG	1:22.8229	0:00.0259
3	Orrcon Steel FPR Ford	Mark Winterbottom	Ford Falcon FG	1:22.8476	0:00.0506
4	TeamVodafone	Craig Lowndes	Holden Commodore VE2	1:23.0228	0:00.2258
5	Tekno Autosports	Jonathon Webb	Holden Commodore VE2	1:23.0499	0:00.2529
6	Team BOC	Jason Bright	Holden Commodore VE2	1:23.0952	0:00.2982
7	The Bottle-O Racing Team	David Reynolds	Ford Falcon FG	1:23.1129	0:00.3159
8	Fujitsu Racing GRM	Michael Caruso	Holden Commodore VE2	1:23.1636	0:00.3666
9	Lockwood Racing	Fabian Coulthard	Holden Commodore VE2	1:23.1640	0:00.3670
10	Irwin Racing	Lee Holdsworth	Ford Falcon FG	1:23.1845	0:00.3875
11	SP Tools Racing	Shane Van Gisbergen	Ford Falcon FG	1:23.2159	0:00.4189
12	Wilson Security Racing	David Wall	Holden Commodore VE2	1:23.2926	0:00.4956
13	Holden Racing Team	Garth Tander	Holden Commodore VE2	1:23.3028	0:00.5058
14	Fujitsu Racing GRM	Alexandre Premat	Holden Commodore VE2	1:23.3155	0:00.5185
15	Holden Racing Team	James Courtney	Holden Commodore VE2	1:23.3683	0:00.5713
16	Team Norton DJR	James Moffat	Ford Falcon FG	1:23.3778	0:00.5808
17	Team iSelect	Taz Douglas	Holden Commodore VE2	1:23.4713	0:00.6743
18	Jim Beam Racing	Dean Fiore	Ford Falcon FG	1:23.5124	0:00.7154
19	Lucky 7 Racing	Tim Slade	Ford Falcon FG	1:23.5243	0:00.7273
20	VIP Petfoods	Steve Owen	Ford Falcon FG	1:23.5484	0:00.7514
21	Jack Daniel’s Racing	Rick Kelly	Holden Commodore VE2	1:23.5576	0:00.7606
22	Tekno Autosports	Michael Patrizi	Holden Commodore VE2	1:23.5849	0:00.7879
23	Supercheap Auto Racing	Russell Ingall	Holden Commodore VE2	1:23.6279	0:00.8309
24	Jack Daniel’s Racing	Tim Blanchard	Holden Commodore VE2	1:23.6566	0:00.8596
25	Jim Beam Racing	Steven Johnson	Ford Falcon FG	1:23.6599	0:00.8629
26	Team Hiflex	Tony D’Alberto	Ford Falcon FG	1:23.6819	0:00.8849
27	Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing	Karl Reindler	Holden Commodore VE2	1:23.6854	0:00.8884
28	Pepsi Max Crew	Greg Murphy	Holden Commodore VE2	1:23.8200	0:01.0230