Bright earns V8 pole after Lowndes docked

Jason Bright has taken pole position for Sunday’s V8 Supercars race in Townsville after fastest qualifier Craig Lowndes was relegated by a stewards punishment.

Lowndes was docked two grid positions for careless driving in Saturday’s racing, meaning his 1:13.0978 time was only good enough to put him in third spot.

Bright’s pole was one of the tightest in V8 Supercars history – earned by just five ten-thousands of a second ahead of Jamie Whincup.

The pole position bodes well for the Team BOC driver, whose last qualifying pole position produced his last win, in Pukekohe, New Zealand.

As was the case with Saturday’s racing, Lowndes took all of the attention.

The Red Bull Racing driver and three-time series champion was served a 25 point penalty for an incident in Saturday’s first race.

Attempting to carve a way through the top end of the field, Lowndes had made contact with Holden Racing Team’s Garth Tander and James Courtney.

He eventually crashed out of the race – his first DNF in 82 races – before recovering to finish sixth in race two.

He will share the second row with Scott McLaughlin, who recorded his third straight fourth position of the weekend.

Championship leader Mark Winterbottom will have to continue his excellent Sunday record from the middle of the pack, missing the shoot-out by five hundredths of a second.

Winterbottom was bumped from the top 10 in the dying seconds of qualifying and will start 12th.

“It’s been tough. There’s been a few little things with the car we’re trying to fix,” he said.

“You’re only looking for a little bit… one tenth could have put me fifth.”

Just 0.35 of a second separated the top 10, with that again between Chaz Mostert in 10th to Russell Ingall in 19th.

Todd Kelly will start at the back of the grid after a four-place penalty from a reckless bump of Jack Perkins in race two.

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