Whincup takes Bathurst pole after winning top ten shootout

Jamie Whincup will start on pole position for Sunday’s Bathurst 1000 after setting the fastest lap in Saturday afternoon’s top ten shootout at Mount Panorama.

After setting the fastest laps in all but one of the weekend sessions, the Holden driver started the day as the favourite, and he delivered the goods as the last driver in the shootout.

Whincup will be joined on the front row of the grid by Volvo’s Scott McLaughlin, who was just six-hundredths of a second behind his Holden rival.

Ford’s Chaz Mostert brushed aside the disappointment of last year’s crash by qualifying third fastest.

Six-time Supercars series champion Whincup clocked two minutes, 05.426 seconds to pip McLaughlin in the last run of the shootout, which decides the front of the grid for Sunday's 56th Great Race.

Whincup has dominated the week to date but did not have to be told that the last time a pole sitter won Bathurst was in 2009, when Holden's Garth Tander and Will Davison finished first.

"There's a rumour going around that you can't win from pole," Whincup said.

"But I believe it is the best place to be."

McLaughlin was gutted to have been denied his first Bathurst pole.

"It is pole position at Bathurst - it means everything," he said.

"I gave it my all. One day it will happen."

Mostert may not have finished with top spot but he still felt like a winner.

He finally completed Bathurst qualifying for the first time in his fourth Great Race campaign after a string of disasters.

The worst happened last year when Mostert's Bathurst title defence was shattered - along with his leg - when he crashed spectacularly in qualifying, ruling him out for the rest of the season.

During the shootout on Saturday, Mostert was cheered on by rabid Ford fans between The Dipper and Forrest's Elbow where he suffered last year's horror accident.

"It's special to be out there in qualifying and have that great support from the fans in my comeback from last year," Mostert said.

"Even the marshals up there (in the section where he crashed last year) gave me the thumbs up during the warm-up.

"That's what makes this place so special."

Series leader Shane van Gisbergen of Holden was seventh fastest. Defending Supercars champion Mark Winterbottom of Ford had a shocker, finishing 10th.

Meanwhile, 17-year-old rookie Jack Smith was earlier left shaken after a spectacular crash at The Dipper in the second tier Dunlop Series.