Mark Winterbottom has given Ford provisional pole for the Bathurst 1000 after leading the way during the Friday qualifying session at Mount Panorama.
The Ford Performance Racing man posted a best time of 2min 07.1481secs during the session to secure his place at the head of the field heading into the top-ten shootout on Saturday when he will hope to secure pole for the Blue Oval.
Winterbottom's best lap-time was set within the final two minutes of the highly competitive top twenty second qualifying session. Castrol FPR Falcon driving partner Steve Richards spent the session providing valuable input to FPR's race engineers and to his driving partner, after having topped the timesheets himself in practice earlier in the day.
�The car is very good and easy to drive,� Winterbottom said. �Around here you really need a car to be stable and settled which is exactly what we have right now, so we are in very good shape for the race. As proven by Richo setting the fastest time during practice this morning, we are both right on the pace and I am sure that if he was driving he would have done the same lap time.
�It's great to be on top of qualifying today, particularly after making a driving mistake on my fastest lap, but there is a long way to go yet. There isn't much in it at the top of the time sheets, so if we can get another good day under our belts tomorrow, I'm sure that we head into Sunday's race absolutely full of confidence.�
While it was an impressive run to the top spot by Winterbottom, it was a hard day for Orrcon Ford Credit FPR Falcon drivers Matt Halliday and Owen Kelly, with Halliday suffering engine problems early in the first qualifying session which required further attention in the pits.
