V8s: Holden dominate front of grid for Hamilton 400

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Holden have dominated the front of the grid for today's race one of the Hamilton 400, the New Zealand round of the V8 Supercar championship.

Defending series champion and current points leader Jamie Whincup will start in pole position, after winning the top-10 shootout with a time of 1min 23.2690sec on the 3.4km street circuit.

Whincup, who took out both races in Hamilton last year, produced a slick second sector to finish ahead of Garth Tander and Michael Caruso, both also in Holdens.

It will be the Victorian's fifth pole of the season and the 17th of his career.

Fourth was Whincup's Team Vodafone team-mate Craig Lowndes, while Steven Johnson was the best-placed Ford driver in fifth.

Only one New Zealander, Holden driver Fabian Coulthard, made it through to the shootout and he will start the 59-lap race sixth on the grid.

The best of the other New Zealanders was Greg Murphy (Holden) who was 13th in the initial qualifying session.

Jason Richards (Holden) was 15th and Steven Richards (Ford) 16th.

There was big disappointment for Shane Van Gisbergen, who was third fastest in practice yesterday, but who was 21st in his Ford this morning.

Van Gisbergen's effort was disrupted by two red flags during the 20-minute qualifying session, both because of incidents at turn seven.

The first stop came after West Australian Tony Ricciardello's Holden made hard contact with a concrete wall, causing a fire under the bonnet that marshalls quickly put out.

Then both Queenslander Andrew Thompson and Victorian Will Davison also came unstuck at the same corner in their Holdens.

- NZPA