Whincup beats van Gisbergen to Red Bull 1-2 in qualifying

Jamie Whincup will lead teammate Shane van Gisbergen in an all-Red Bull front row for this afternoon’s Supercars race in Townsville.

Whincup set a blistering time in the top ten shootout, finishing three-tenths up on van Gisbergen.

“It was good,” Whincup said.

“I put it all on the line like I did yesterday but got a much smoother lap.”

Van Gisbergen had only gone to the head of the field the lap prior, edging surprise runner Todd Hazelwood.

Hazelwood’s sole lap was super impressive given he only just scrapped into the shootout during the morning’s qualifying session.

He will start third ahead of Brad Jones Racing stablemate Nick Percat.

Anton de Pasquale is the highest-ranked Ford driver and will start fifth.

Joining him on the third row is Cam Waters, whose lap was thwarted by a wild off.

Will Brown’s debut shootout appearance placed him seventh.

Will Davison was eighth, with Tim Slade starting ahead of David Reynolds in ninth.

For the other Kiwis in the field, Andre Heimgartner slipped down to 18th in qualifying after initially setting the fastest lap.

Meanwhile, Fabian Coulthard starts out of 22nd.