Coulthard heads BJR one-two in Albert Park qualifying
Fabian Coulthard
Brad Jones Racing team-mates Fabian Coulthard and Jason Bright proved the class of the field in V8 Supercars qualifying at Albert Park.
The result marks Coulthard’s first career V8 Supercars pole position and comes off the back of a fast but ultimately fruitless run in Adelaide two weeks ago.
Bright ended up second fastest but will start just fourth thanks to a two-place grid penalty for passing the chequered flag twice at the end of Practice 1.
Shane van Gisbergen and Craig Lowndes both gain from Bright’s penalty to line up second and third respectively.
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Fifth through 10th were Jamie Whincup, David Reynolds, Jonathon Webb, Scott McLaughlin, Will Davison and Mark Winterbottom.
Michael Caruso was the fastest of the Nissans in 12th, while Tim Slade was an encouraging 14th in the leading Erebus Mercedes.
As expected, teams split the 30 minute session into three green tyre runs.
A 1:56.44s effort from Whincup proved the best of the initial laps, before the Red Bull driver lowered the benchmark by a scant 0.02s on his second set of tyres.
That effort was quickly eclipsed by the second runs of first Bright (1:56.02s) and then Coulthard (1:55.67s), with both times proving unbeatable over the remaining 12 minutes.
Van Gisbergen was the only driver to penetrate the top four on his third set, leaping from outside the top 10 to third following significant in-session set-up changes.
Tenth for Winterbottom came after the FPR driver damaged the steering in his Falcon on his final lap.
Alexandre Premat’s session ended with rather more visible damage – the front-end of the Fujitsu Holden mangled after contact with Jonny Reid, who had swerved into the path of the fast-approaching Frenchman.
Race 1 of 4 for the V8 Supercars this weekend will get underway at 1100 local time tomorrow.
See below for the full qualifying result
| 1 | Lockwood Racing | Fabian Coulthard | Holden Commodore VF | 1:55.6682 | |
| 2 | Team BOC | Jason Bright | Holden Commodore VF | 1:56.0173 | 0:00.3491 |
| 3 | TEKNO Team VIP | Shane Van Gisbergen | Holden Commodore VF | 1:56.0444 | 0:00.3762 |
| 4 | Red Bull Racing Australia | Craig Lowndes | Holden Commodore VF | 1:56.2054 | 0:00.5372 |
| 5 | Red Bull Racing Australia | Jamie Whincup | Holden Commodore VF | 1:56.4227 | 0:00.7545 |
| 6 | The Bottle-O FPR Ford | David Reynolds | Ford Falcon FG | 1:56.6233 | 0:00.9551 |
| 7 | Tekno Autosports | Jonathon Webb | Holden Commodore VF | 1:56.7129 | 0:01.0447 |
| 8 | Fujitsu Racing GRM | Scott McLaughlin | Holden Commodore VF | 1:56.7223 | 0:01.0541 |
| 9 | Pepsi Max Crew FPR Ford | Will Davison | Ford Falcon FG | 1:56.8193 | 0:01.1511 |
| 10 | Pepsi Max Crew FPR Ford | Mark Winterbottom | Ford Falcon FG | 1:56.8625 | 0:01.1943 |
| 11 | Supercheap Auto Racing | Russell Ingall | Holden Commodore VF | 1:57.2019 | 0:01.5337 |
| 12 | Norton 360 Racing | Michael Caruso | Nissan Altima | 1:57.2178 | 0:01.5496 |
| 13 | Jack Daniel’s Racing | Todd Kelly | Nissan Altima | 1:57.2748 | 0:01.6066 |
| 14 | Heavy Haulage Australia Racing | Tim Slade | Mercedes E63 AMG | 1:57.3251 | 0:01.6569 |
| 15 | Holden Racing Team | Garth Tander | Holden Commodore VF | 1:57.3650 | 0:01.6968 |
| 16 | Team HIFLEX | Tony D’Alberto | Holden Commodore VF | 1:57.4147 | 0:01.7465 |
| 17 | ekol Racing | Scott Pye | Holden Commodore VF | 1:57.4172 | 0:01.7490 |
| 18 | Wilson Security Racing | David Wall | Holden Commodore VF | 1:57.4390 | 0:01.7708 |
| 19 | Holden Racing Team | James Courtney | Holden Commodore VF | 1:57.4600 | 0:01.7918 |
| 20 | Jack Daniel’s Racing | Rick Kelly | Nissan Altima | 1:57.4779 | 0:01.8097 |
| 21 | Norton 360 Racing | James Moffat | Nissan Altima | 1:57.4882 | 0:01.8200 |
| 22 | Jeld-wen FPR Ford | Alex Davison | Ford Falcon FG | 1:57.5041 | 0:01.8359 |
| 23 | Fujitsu Racing GRM | Alexandre Premat | Holden Commodore VF | 1:57.5220 | 0:01.8538 |
| 24 | Irwin Racing | Lee Holdsworth | Mercedes E63 AMG | 1:57.6629 | 0:01.9947 |
| 25 | Wilson Security Racing | Jonny Reid | Ford Falcon FG | 1:57.8355 | 0:02.1673 |
| 26 | Dodo Insurance Racing | Dean Fiore | Holden Commodore VF | 1:58.0042 | 0:02.3360 |
| 27 | Wilson Security Racing | Tim Blanchard | Ford Falcon FG | 1:58.2013 | 0:02.5331 |
| 28 | SP Tools Racing | Maro Engel | Mercedes E63 AMG | 1:58.9306 | 0:03.2624 |