Red Bull Racing’s Jamie Whincup appears to have put his early troubles behind him after taking pole position for the opening V8 Supercar race at Symmons Plains.
Whincup had openly complained about the lack of driveability of his Commodore in contrast to his teammate Craig Lowndes’ identical car.
However there was a dramatic improvement in performance on Saturday as the series defending champion grabbed his first pole position of the year.
In the 20-minute shootout, Whincup beat the Commodore of New Zealander Fabian Coulthard.
For Coulthard his run mirrored his performance at the grand prix meeting last month when he won three of the four races staged.
Third was the Falcon of Mark Winterbottom, whose Ford Performance Racing outfit has shown it has continued to extract information from the Falcon.
Former series champion Garth Tander, who was fastest in early practice, finished fourth in qualifying.
Lowndes, the series points leader and the man who needs one more race win to break Mark Skaife’s record of 90, was surprisingly slow after a strong showing on Friday.
Lowndes was down in eighth spot in a setback for his early bid to claim the new championship mark.
Again the Nissans and Mercedes E63s struggled around the tight track, struggling home well down the standings.
Saturday’s race which will be split into two 25-lap runs with a short break in between will be followed by two longer races on Sunday.