Team Vodafone's Craig Lowndes took his first pole position since 2005 when he went fastest in the qualifying shootout for race one of the BigPond 300 at Barbagallo.

Lowndes was fifth before the shootout but hung on to pole position in the shootout, his teammate Jamie Whincup just failing to beat his time by 0.0052 of a second after leading qualifying going into the shootout, the two Team Vodafone cars lining up on the front row of the grid.

Still less than a tenth behind Lowndes were Jim Beam's Steven Johnson and Holden Racing Team's Will Davison in third and fourth, with Todd Kelly and Mark Winterbottom filling the third row of the grid.

The remainder of the top 10 on the grid will be Lee Holdsworth, Garth Tander, Russell Ingall and James Courtney, who gave away any chance of a better position when he locked his brakes into the final corner, and still only missed pole by just over half a second.

Rick Kelly just missed the shootout in 11th position, while Jason Bright looked set for another good qualifying before also just missing the top 10 in 13th.

A couple of fancied Ford runners in the shape of Fabian Coulthard and Shane van Gisbergen didn't even come close to the top 10, qualifying 18th and 19th behind the second Supercheap car of Tim Slade.

However, it was an even more disastrous session for Jason Richards, who ended the session in 27th position on the second to the last row of the grid.

Pos  Driver                Car                   Time
 1.  Craig Lowndes         Ford Falcon FG        0:57.1862 
 2.  Jamie Whincup         Ford Falcon FG        0:57.1914  + 0.0052
 3.  Steven Johnson        Ford Falcon FG        0:57.2446  + 0.0584
 4.  Will Davison          Holden Commodore VE   0:57.2688  + 0.0826
 5.  Todd Kelly            Holden Commodore VE   0:57.3226  + 0.1364
 6.  Mark Winterbottom     Ford Falcon FG        0:57.3753  + 0.1891
 7.  Lee Holdsworth        Holden Commodore VE   0:57.3938  + 0.2076
 8.  Garth Tander          Holden Commodore VE   0:57.4571  + 0.2709
 9.  Russell Ingall        Holden Commodore VE   0:57.5289  + 0.3427
10.  James Courtney        Ford Falcon FG        0:57.7084  + 0.5222
11.  Rick Kelly            Holden Commodore VE   0:57.3585  + 0.1723
12.  David Reynolds        Holden Commodore VE   0:57.3589  + 0.1727
13.  Jason Bright          Ford Falcon FG        0:57.4287  + 0.2425
14.  Michael Caruso        Holden Commodore VE   0:57.4354  + 0.2492
15.  Paul Dumbrell         Holden Commodore VE   0:57.4395  + 0.2533
16.  Steven Richards       Ford Falcon FG        0:57.4518  + 0.2656
17.  Tim Slade             Holden Commodore VE   0:57.4566  + 0.2704
18.  Fabian Coulthard      Ford Falcon FG        0:57.5572  + 0.3710
19.  Shane Van Gisbergen   Ford Falcon FG        0:57.6110  + 0.4248
20.  Jason Bargwanna       Holden Commodore VE   0:57.6211  + 0.4349
21.  Alex Davison          Ford Falcon FG        0:57.4493  + 0.2631
22.  Greg Murphy           Holden Commodore VE   0:57.4583  + 0.2721
23.  Cameron McConville    Holden Commodore VE   0:57.5438  + 0.3576
24.  Dean Fiore            Holden Commodore VE   0:57.5547  + 0.3685
25.  Tony D'Alberto        Holden Commodore VE   0:57.6107  + 0.4245
26.  Jack Perkins          Holden Commodore VE   0:57.6263  + 0.4401
27.  Jason Richards        Holden Commodore VE   0:57.6864  + 0.5002
28.  Michael Patrizi       Ford Falcon BF        0:58.0029  + 0.8167
29.  Mark McNally          Holden Commodore VE   0:58.3131  + 1.1269