Whincup handed grid penalty

Jamie Whincup has been penalised following contact with James Moffat in qualifying for Race 15 at the Coates Hire Ipswich SuperSprint.

Whincup has been deducted five grid spots, moving him from ninth back to 14th, for making contact with Moffat while merging into the fast lane during the session.

The penalty has been confirmed by the stewards ahead of the 120km encounter.

"After a DRD investigation and an admission to a breach of Schedule B2 Articles 6.6 & 6.7 (contact with Car #34 while merging into the fast lane and the floppy at Pit Exit) by Car #88, Jamie Whincup, the Stewards imposed the penalty of the loss of 5 Grid Spots on Car #88, Jamie Whincup, for Race 15," read a statement.

"I didn’t see Moff and he was obviously racing hard," said Whincup when asked of his attempted rejoin.

"It is what it is. We didn’t do a good enough job in qualy. We’ll be aggressive in the race and see what we can do."

Moffat, who went on to qualify just 28th, was surprised by Whincup's actions.

“He was taking the piss to be honest,” said Moffat. “I don’t know where he thought I was going to go, he just come straight out into us.”

Alex Davison will meanwhile not be penalised for impeding Scott McLaughlin during the session after being deemed "not predominantly to blame for the incident".

McLaughlin elected to back out of his flying lap as he came up on Davison who was among a train of cars warming up for their run.