Davison pulls pole position sweep for Abu Dhabi sprint races

Will Davison saved his best lap until last to take pole position for Race 24 of the Championship today in Abu Dhabi.

In an intense 20-minute session that saw drivers angling for three pole-winning laps, Davison jumped to the top spot with 2 minutes remaining to take the fastest time and pole position.

Not only was Davison fast - he was consistent, too; his second and third best laps were good enough to secure a pole position sweep for the weekend.

As such, the #6 TradingPost FPR Ford will be on pole for each race this weekend.

"We've had pretty good qualifying form all season. It was good to bounce back strongly on the Gold Coast and hopefully we can carry that on here and finish the year like we started it," Davison said.

"(Pole) is very important. It's great to be on that front row and hopefully clear on what I think will be a lot of the 'dive-bombing' that will be going on behind.

"Will be nice to be out the way of that and out in front where we can just have a great race."

Davison’s 2m11.766s lap was 0.11s faster than second-placed Jamie Whincup’s best; The TeamVodafone driver having topped most of the session before Davison’s last-ditch flyer.

Whincup still did enough to take second for each of the three races.

“I think the three of us are very happy to be top three for all sessions,” he said.

“Of course, we all went out to achieve pole but we didn’t quite do as good a job as we should have today. The track changed quite a bit during the run and we didn’t adjust quick enough, and I was just done by ‘Davo.. His car was very good and clearly did a good job.”

The two fastest drivers were a full three-tenths quicker than a trio of Stone Brothers Racing Fords in Race 24 qualifying: Shane van Gisbergen, Tim Slade and Lee Holdsworth, respectively.

The SBR Fords were quick all session and SP Tools-backed van Gisbergen had topped the times earlier in the session. He was able to secure third for each of the three races – ensuring the top three on the grid will be the same for each race this weekend.

The flying New Zealander is expecting three highly competitive races this weekend.

“Even with the Soft tyres after qualifying you’re still going off after that first lap and a half. 12 laps there will be some people struggling out there. Some might go hard and some might conserve out there but i think it will be competitive and there will be some passing out there.”

Garth Tander was 6th, competing a consistent session for the Holden Racing Team driver that will see him start the three races from sixth, sixth and eighth, respectively, in Car #2.

Title contender Mark Winterbottom was seventh and Jonathon Webb eighth, with Craig Lowndes and James Courtney completing the Top 10.

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