V8 Supercar championship contenders Craig Lowndes and Chaz Mostert have secured a pole each for Saturday’s two sprint races at Queensland Raceway.

In-form Ford star Chaz Mostert pipped championship leader Mark Winterbottom to pole for the first of the 20-lap races at the 3.12km circuit as their Prodrive Racing Australia (PRA) outfit secured another front-row lockout.

Mostert, who has signed a deal keeping him with PRA until the end of 2019, clocked a one minute and 09.7755 second lap for his seventh pole position of the season.

The Bathurst champion was 0.2479 seconds ahead of Winterbottom in the biggest pole margin for a race at Queensland Raceway since Jason Bright’s effort in 1999.

Another PRA driver, New Zealander Andre Heimgartner, secured his career-best qualifying effort and will start the opening race from third position.

Holden veteran Lowndes, sitting second in the title race, qualified fifth for Saturday’s opening race.

But the Red Bull Racing ace responded in the second qualifying run, clocking a best lap of one minute and 09.3102 seconds for his 41st career pole.

Winterbottom was again second-fastest in the session with Mostert qualifying third.

Defending champion Jamie Whincup will start the races from 11th and eighth respectively.

New Zealander Fabian Coulthard, who is third in the title standings, had a poor qualifying display and will start from 15th and a lowly 21st in the sprint events.