Red Bull secure back-to-back lockouts
Seven-time V8 Supercars champion Jamie Whincup has pipped teammate Shane van Gisbergen in the final lap of the Top Ten Shootout to qualify first for Sunday's race of the Townsville 500.
Whincup's roaring time of 1:12.310 put him three-tenths of a second ahead of van Gisbergen and secured a Red Bull full lockout on the front row over the weekend's two races.
Second in Saturday's race to van Gisbergen, Whincup said he thought he could drive better and would chat with his engineers about how to pull off a better performance.
At least in qualifying on Sunday, he did.
"I put it all on the line like I did yesterday and I got a much smoother lap because of the engineers," he said after securing pole.
"We could've called it safe and run yesterday's set up, but I had a crack and boom - got the cookies."
He noted, however, their focus is pushing his teammate all the way to secure solid performances for Red Bull
"All I'm trying to do is put the pressure on him (van Gisbergen) and if I can keep the pressure on and we can fight against each other so to speak, we should make each other better," he said.
Brad Jones Racing's Todd Hazelwood turned his first race misfortunes on their head, securing third ahead of teammate Nick Percat.
Hazelwood, who shared the front row with Percat at last year's event, was pleased with his performance after an abysmal opening qualifying saw him start Saturday's race in 19th.
"I got the second-row lockout with Nick alongside with me, so I'm super ecstatic," he said.
"We had a bit of a tough run yesterday with power steering issues but we had a really strong race pace, so really looking forward to see what we can do this afternoon."
V8 SUPERCARS RACE 16 QUALIFYING:
1. Jamie Whincup (Red Bull Ampol Racing) 1:12.310
2. Shane van Gisbergen (Red Bull Ampol Racing) +.344
3. Todd Hazelwood (Brad Jones Racing) +.387
4. Nick Percat (Brad Jones Racing) +.402
5. Anton De Pasquale (Shell V-Power Racing) +.414.
