Engine dramas could not stop Craig Lowndes claiming pole position for the opening 140km race of the V8 Supercars round at Ipswich on Saturday.

Alarm bells were ringing when Lowndes limped into the pits with smoke billowing from his Holden after completing just two laps of Saturday’s final practice session.

The engine had to be replaced ahead of qualifying – yet Lowndes still came out and claimed pole in a hectic qualifying session to extend his remarkable run at Ipswich.

Lowndes – who swept last year’s round at Queensland Raceway – on Saturday clocked 1min 9.22sec ahead of series leader and teammate Jamie Whincup 1:09.38.

Whincup’s nearest championship rivals were close behind – Mark Winterbottom (1:09.51) was third quickest and Ford teammate Will Davison (1:09.57) fourth fastest.

But Lowndes is the man to beat after overcoming adversity to set a blistering qualifying pace, backing up his impressive track record at Ipswich.

“It puffed out some smoke so I came back in and unfortunately whatever’s gone wrong is more internal inside the engine,” Lowndes said of his engine dramas at practice.

“Normally at this time of the day we’re right in the middle of qualifying so thankfully we had this practice session.”

Three-time champion Whincup leads the championship with 1794 points ahead of Winterbottom (1694), Davison (1654) and Lowndes (1496).

The opening race of the Ipswich round starts at 4.05pm (AEST)