Craig Lowndes takes pole at the Clipsal 500 Photo credit: Team Vodafone
Team Vodafone's Craig Lowndes has landed the first pole position of the 2012 V8 Supercars Championship season at the Clipsal 500.
Lowndes set the fastest lap time in today’s Top Ten Shootout beating Holden Racing Team's Garth Tander by just 0.017s to secure his first ever pole start at the Adelaide circuit and his 27th career pole.
Sharing the second row will be Trading Post Ford Performance Racing's Will Davison in third and Tekno Autosport's Jonathon Webb, who achieved a personal best qualifying spot to take fourth.
Defending champion Jamie Whincup (TeamVodafone) will start from fifth ahead of Tim Slade (Lucky 7 Racing), Mark Winterbottom (Orrcon Steel Ford Performance Racing), David Reynolds (The Bottle-O Racing Team), Fabian Coulthard (Lockwood Racing) and Shane van Gisbergen (SP Tools Racing).
Race 1 starting order:
| 1 | Craig Lowndes | TeamVodafone | 1:21.2738 | |
| 2 | Garth Tander | Holden Racing Team | 1:21.2908 | 0:00.0170 |
| 3 | Will Davison | Trading Post FPR Ford | 1:21.4194 | 0:00.1456 |
| 4 | Jonathon Webb | Tekno Autosports | 1:21.5164 | 0:00.2426 |
| 5 | Jamie Whincup | TeamVodafone | 1:21.5468 | 0:00.2730 |
| 6 | Tim Slade | Lucky 7 Racing | 1:21.6288 | 0:00.3550 |
| 7 | Mark Winterbottom | Orrcon Steel FPR Ford | 1:21.7093 | 0:00.4355 |
| 8 | David Reynolds | The Bottle-O Racing Team | 1:21.8078 | 0:00.5340 |
| 9 | Fabian Coulthard | Lockwood Racing | 1:22.0289 | 0:00.7551 |
| 10 | Shane Van Gisbergen | SP Tools Racing | 1:22.3105 | 0:01.0367 |
| 11 | Todd Kelly | Jack Daniel's Racing | 1:21.2386 | 0:00.4227 |
| 12 | Tony D'Alberto | Tony D'Alberto Racing | 1:21.3746 | 0:00.5587 |
| 13 | James Courtney | Holden Racing Team | 1:21.4035 | 0:00.5876 |
| 14 | Rick Kelly | Jack Daniel's Racing | 1:21.4148 | 0:00.5989 |
| 15 | Lee Holdsworth | Irwin Racing | 1:21.4880 | 0:00.6721 |
| 16 | Michael Caruso | Fujitsu Racing GRM | 1:21.4966 | 0:00.6807 |
| 17 | Steve Owen | V.I.P. Petfoods | 1:21.5431 | 0:00.7272 |
| 18 | Steven Johnson | Jim Beam Racing | 1:21.5915 | 0:00.7756 |
| 19 | James Moffat | Team Norton DJR | 1:21.5928 | 0:00.7769 |
| 20 | Michael Patrizi | Tekno Autosports | 1:21.6802 | 0:00.8643 |
| 21 | Russell Ingall | Supercheap Auto Racing | 1:21.7532 | 0:00.9373 |
| 22 | Greg Murphy | Pepsi Max Crew | 1:21.7964 | 0:00.9805 |
| 23 | Dean Fiore | Jim Beam Racing | 1:21.9426 | 0:01.1267 |
| 24 | Taz Douglas | Team iSelect | 1:22.1907 | 0:01.3748 |
| 25 | Alexandre Premat | Fujitsu Racing GRM | 1:22.1991 | 0:01.3832 |
| 26 | David Wall | Wilson Security Racing | 1:22.4358 | 0:01.6199 |
| 27 | Jason Bright | Team BOC | 1:29.3326 | 0:08.5167 |
