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Front row: Whincup v Winterbottom

07 Dec 2013
Rivals to face off on front row. Who will get the jump?
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Just 0.16sec edged Jamie Whincup to ARMOR ALL Pole Position for this evening’s twilight V8 Supercars race.

The Championship couldn’t get better – rivals Whincup and Mark Winterbottom will line up alongside one another in the classic Holden versus Ford battle at the Sydney NRMA Motoring & Services 500.

Meanwhile fan favourite Craig Lowndes will start from 10th after driver error during the Top 10 Shootout.

Whincup recorded a 1min28.8137 lap, the final car out for the one-lap dash.

“We did a good job yesterday getting the car nice and quick, which is why we’re on pole,” the Championship leader told v8supercars.com.au.

“It wasn’t the cleanest lap, track conditions were greasy from this morning. I made a few errors but luckily I had a great car, which is all part of the gig.

“We’re just putting our heads down and focusing on the job at hand, so we’ve had a good lead-up. We’re on track.”

Winterbottom was fourth out in the session and held the top time until Whincup came out last.

“Pretty hairy little lap there!” Winterbottom said. “You’re obviously trying to push hard, but Jamie just got the better of us.

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“Front row, I went from seventh to second so we made improvements.

“What a good little battle this is going to be now… I just want to lead and put some pressure on him, drive pretty hard here and see what happens.

“If I can beat him off the line it’ll help a bit although I’ve got Triple Eight cars all around me with the TEKNO boys. I probably need to get clear of them before the meat in the sandwich is me.” 

Shane van Gisbergen looked to be a real challenge, but was 0.2sec down on the Pepsi Max FPR challenger.

Will Davison, also mathematically in the Championship, will start from sixth. He damaged the front of the car in the qualifying session, but said it wasn’t hard to go out there for his one-lap dash.

“The car was repaired, the guys did a great job so I was more just thinking what we need to do to improve the car but it’s just different track conditions,” he said.

“We tuned for massive understeer after qualifying and now had absolutely no rear grip, as you see a lot of people did.”

The twilight race begins at 5.10pm AEDT at the Sydney NRMA Motoring & Services 500.

Click here for full ARMOR ALL Top 10 Shootout results.

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Front row: Whincup v Winterbottom | Supercars