GOLD COAST, Queensland, Australia — official release — V8SC photo —

Scott McLaughlin held the Red Bulls of Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes off the front row to score his eighth ARMOR All Pole Award of the season with a spectacular lap in preparation of the second half of the Castrol EDGE Gold Coast 600.

McLaughlin and Whincup are locked in the fight for the year’s ARMOR ALL Pole Position award, both now tied on eight P1 starts for the season.

But it was Whincup (pairing with Paul Dumbrell) who came off second best in the session as the Volvo driver punched out a 1:11.0273 second lap in the S60 he will share with Frenchman Alex Premat.

Craig Lowndes made amends for his error during yesterday’s Top 10 Shootout by landing the Commodore he will share with Steve Richards third.

Yesterday’s pole man and eventual race winner Shane van Gisbergen (Jonathon Webb) will start fourth.

Will Davison (Alex Davison), the repaired Bottle-O Falcon of David Reynolds (and Dean Canto) bouncing back, James Moffat (Taz Douglas), Tim Slade (Tony D’Alberto), Chaz Mostert (Paul Morris) and James Courtney (Greg Murphy) completing the top 10.

Others to note include Garth Tander (Warren Luff) 11, Mark Winterbottom (Steve Owen) 13, Fabian Coulthard (Luke Youlden) 17, and the second Volvo – interestingly qualified by co-driver Greg Ritter rather than the Championship’s Robert Dahlgren, landing 18th.