Lowndes third continues FPR return to form.

Ford Performance Racing's Craig Lowndes underlined the recent return to form from the team he will leave at the end of the season by qualifying third for the first of two Australian V8 Supercar Championship races to be held this weekend in Surfers Paradise.

The 30 year old triple champion driver was in the hunt for the provisional pole position throughout the highly competitive 20 minute session, swapping the top spot on the Gold Coast time sheets several times with Holden rival Mark Skaife and Ford driver Russell Ingall.

By the end of the very warm session, Skaife with a 1min 50.3768secs time had won the top spot by 2/10ths of a second from Ingall, who managed to slip into second by 1/100th of a second in the session's dying moments. Lowndes' best lap time of 1min 50.5878secs was strong enough for third, 3/100ths of a second ahead of Ford driver and championship leader Marcos Ambrose. Holden driver Rick Kelly rounded off the Indy V8 Supercar top five qualifiers.

"We are very satisfied with our team effort today, particularly on the back of our Bathurst success," said Lowndes after the session. "The car wasn't bad to start with, but I broke a steering arm this morning and missed most of the first practice session. Considering the lost track time, the car was working very well.

"We kept punching near the front throughout qualifying, so I'm very happy with our speed here. We will continue our efforts to make the car easy to drive, while having the pace to compete at the front of the action. We can't make up any ground with pit stops here, so it will be all about having a fast and comfortable race car."

Lowndes team-mate, Ford Credit FPV Falcon driver Glenn Seton qualified 15th, despite setting a competitive qualifying lap time of 1min 51.5229secs, only 2/10ths of a second outside of the top ten cut. Despite missing out on the top ten shoot-out, Seton was pleased with the major improvements made to his car after both of the day's practice sessions.

"I would have liked to make the Gold Coast Indy top ten as I have only been in the top ten here once in qualifying," said Seton. "Having said this, the car was a major improvement over this morning and I am looking forward to the race. I had a strong run up to fifth from the back last year and we are planning to do better this year."

FPR's chief engineer, John Russell, was a happy man on Friday after what has been a challenging season. "A very rewarding day for the team, backing up the fact that the progress we have made since Bathurst wasn't a fluke," said Russell. "We are delighted for Craig but disappointed for Glenn because he was baulked on his best lap and he may have been in the top ten given how close it was today.
A great effort by the team and we look forward to tomorrow."