R4S QUAL - Skaife saves best for last
12/5/2001 23:12 (Press Releases) -
Mark Skaife waited until his one flying lap in the top ten shootout to produce a new lap record and claim pole for the fourth round of the Shell Championship Series at Darwin's Hidden Valley circuit.
"We constantly improved through the day and I got a smooth lap in when it counted," said Skaife.
Skaife's shootout time of 1:08.455 was enough to relegate Russell Ingall to second, with the two Holden drivers earning their front row positions after being the only ones to improve their provisional qualifying times in the shootout.
Exciting new Ford signing, Marcos Ambrose qualified third, continuing his impressive form in his rookie year which has seen him qualify in the top six at every round.
"I have never been to Hidden Valley before, so it is very pleasing to be able to carry my early season form to a new track and maintain our qualifying consistency," said Ambrose.
Greg Murphy was fourth for the Kmart Holden Team, and Tickford Ford's Glenn Seton was fifth.
John Bowe kept pace in his new CAT Racing Falcon to finish in sixth spot, ahead of Garth Tander who drastically improved his early practice times just to grab a spot in the shootout.
Ford's Mark Larkham was eighth, ahead of Holden veteran, Larry Perkins.
David Besnard was tenth to put his woeful start to the season behind him with his best qualifying performance of the year.
Skaife's second pole position of the season came after a furious qualifying session where Jason Bright's 1999 lap record of 1:09.041 was lowered seven times before Skaife made his final bid. The final timesheets showed the top 15 drivers all under the old mark in a tight contest where the top 22 were split by less than a second.
Provisional qualifying started with Ambrose setting the early mark, which was bettered first by Skaife, then Murphy, Bowe, Ambrose again, then Tander with a fresh tyre flier.
With Tander, Perkins and Besnard all making giant leaps up the timesheets, Craig Lowndes and Jason Bright found themselves bumped back to eleventh and twelfth respectively. Paul Radisich was also disappointed to finish fifteenth in his Shell Helix Falcon, despite being just 0.6s away from Skaife's time.
With each team having to negotiate qualifying and three races at a circuit notorious for causing grip problems with a quota of just ten tyres each, conservation of fresh rubber will have a significant bearing on the outcome.
"This place can eat tyres," said Tander. "My fast lap came when we made a few adjustments and put a fresh set on and the car responded well to the green rubber. But the trick will be having enough left by the end of race three tomorrow afternoon. Whoever conserves them best will have a better chance of winning."
**QUALIFYING - TOP TEN**
1st GARTH TANDER (Valvoline-Cummins Racing) - VX Commodore [1:08.4938]
2nd MARCOS AMBROSE (Pirtek Racing) - AU Falcon [1:08.5566]
3rd JOHN BOWE (CAT Racing) - AU Falcon [1:08.6059]
4th RUSSELL INGALL (Castrol Perkins Racing) - VX Commodore [1:08.6654]
5th GREG MURPHY (K-Mart Racing) - VX Commodore [1:08.6672]
6th GLENN SETON (Ford-Tickford Racing) - AU Falcon [1:08.6746]
7th MARK SKAIFE (Holden Racing Team) - VX Commodore [1:08.6848]
8th LARRY PERKINS (Castrol Perkins Racing) - VX Commodore [1:08.7111]
9th DAVID BESNARD (Caltex Havoline Racing) - AU Falcon [1:08.7181]
10th MARK LARKHAM (ICS Team Smartcar) - AU Falcon [1:08.7438]
**TOP TEN SHOOTOUT**
1st MARK SKAIFE (Holden Racing Team) - VX Commodore [1:08.4552min]
2nd RUSSELL INGALL (Castrol Perkins Racing) - VX Commodore [1:08.6116]
3rd MARCOS AMBROSE (Pirtek Racing) - AU Falcon [1:08.6298]
4th GREG MURPHY (K-Mart Racing) - VX Commodore [1:08.7780]
5th GLENN SETON (Ford-Tickford Racing) - AU Falcon [1:08.8086]
6th JOHN BOWE (CAT Racing) - AU Falcon [1:08.8598]
7th GARTH TANDER (Valvoline-Cummins Racing) - VX Commodore [1:09.0763]
8th MARK LARKHAM (ICS Team Smartcar) - AU Falcon [1:09.0978]
9th LARRY PERKINS (Castrol Perkins Racing) - VX Commodore [1:09.2454]
10th DAVID BESNARD (Caltex Havoline Racing) - AU Falcon [1:09.3068]
For complete practice/qualifying results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?13/05/2001.HIDV
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