Red Bull Racing Australia has locked out the front row for today’s second race at Symmons Plains, with Craig Lowndes earning back to back ARMOR ALL Pole Positions with his 51.62sec lap in the qualifying session.
Teammate Jamie Whincup was just 0.0975sec behind, improving from the first session – where he finished eighth – to start alongside his teammate.
Lowndes gave credit to his crew and new engineer Grant McPherson when getting out of the car at the end of the 10-minute dash.
“[We’ve been] working really hard since the start of season,” Lowndes said.
“It’s a track I traditionally go well at, it’s nice to enjoy it … great Jamie’s obviously rebounded form the first – one bad qualifying doesn’t mean you’re out for the day, so it’s good to have the Red Bull cars 1-2.”
Holden Racing Team’s James Courtney will start third in both races, with David Reynolds and Andre Heimgartner the first two Fords in this run.
Heimgartner’s fifth place effort was quite extraordinary, considering the rookie has never raced at the circuit, and this weekend is his first steer of the car in FG X specification.
Garth Tander, Mark Winterbottom, Scott McLaughlin, Will Davison and Shane van Gisbergen completed the top 10 – the field was again separated by less than one second at the 2.41km circuit.
Others to note include Chaz Mostert 14, and Scott Pye 18.
Winterbottom shares the front row with Lowndes in the first of this afternoon’s races, live at 3.15pm ADST from the Tyrepower Tasmania SuperSprint.
