Team Vodafone's Jamie Whincup continued his flying start to the year by taking pole position in the top-ten shootout for the first race of the Clipsal 500 around the streets of the Adelaide parklands.

Whincup was third fastest in an interrupted qualifying session, but put it all together on his shootout lap to take pole position, with the fastest driver in regular qualifying, Holden Racing Team's Garth Tander, starting alongside him despite a brake lockup at turn four on his shootout lap.

Two Fords fill the second row of the grid, Ford Performance Racing's Mark Winterbottom in third ahead of team-mate Paul Dumbrell in the Bottle-O car, Jason Richards and Fabian Coulthard just behind him.

Whincup's team-mate Craig Lowndes was seventh fastest, with Lee Holdsworth, Shane van Gisbergen and an impressive effort from Tony D'Alberto completing the top ten.

With a few surprises inside the top ten, several fancied runners failed to make the shootout. Todd Kelly led those in 11th, followed by Greg Murphy in his new Triple Eight-designed Castrol Commodore.

Jim Beam team-mates Steven Johnson and James Courtney struggled to find clear track during qualifying and ended up 13th and 16th respectively, Courtney one place behind Rick Kelly and one ahead of Michael Caruso.

Will Davison's up and down qualifying in 2010 continued in the second HRT car, qualifying 19th, one place ahead of Russell Ingall who also has had mixed results this season in the session.

Pos  Driver                Car                   Time
 1.  Jamie Whincup         Holden Commodore VE   1m21.5887s
 2.  Garth Tander          Holden Commodore VE   1m21.7839s  +0.1952s
 3.  Mark Winterbottom     Ford Falcon FG        1m21.8360s  +0.2473s
 4.  Paul Dumbrell         Ford Falcon FG        1m22.1511s  +0.5624s
 5.  Jason Richards        Holden Commodore VE   1m22.1685s  +0.5798s
 6.  Fabian Coulthard      Holden Commodore VE   1m22.1874s  +0.5987s
 7.  Craig Lowndes         Holden Commodore VE   1m22.2350s  +0.6463s
 8.  Lee Holdsworth        Holden Commodore VE   1m22.3484s  +0.7597s
 9.  Shane Van Gisbergen   Ford Falcon FG        1m22.3925s  +0.8038s
10.  Tony D'Alberto        Holden Commodore VE   1m22.6322s  +1.0435s
11.  Todd Kelly            Holden Commodore VE   1m21.9080s  +0.3193s
12.  Greg Murphy           Holden Commodore VE   1m21.9708s  +0.3821s
13.  Steven Johnson        Ford Falcon FG        1m22.0534s  +0.4647s
14.  Jason Bright          Holden Commodore VE   1m22.0572s  +0.4685s
15.  Rick Kelly            Holden Commodore VE   1m22.0968s  +0.5081s
16.  James Courtney        Ford Falcon FG        1m22.1912s  +0.6025s
17.  Michael Caruso        Holden Commodore VE   1m22.1924s  +0.6037s
18.  Steven Richards       Ford Falcon FG        1m22.2065s  +0.6178s
19.  Will Davison          Holden Commodore VE   1m22.3856s  +0.7969s
20.  Russell Ingall        Holden Commodore VE   1m22.3905s  +0.8018s
21.  Tim Slade             Ford Falcon FG        1m22.4129s  +0.8242s
22.  Jason Bargwanna       Holden Commodore VE   1m22.7128s  +1.1241s
23.  Alex Davison          Ford Falcon FG        1m22.7238s  +1.1351s
24.  Dean Fiore            Ford Falcon FG        1m22.7405s  +1.1518s
25.  Jonathon Webb         Ford Falcon FG        1m22.7853s  +1.1966s
26.  Karl Reindler         Holden Commodore VE   1m22.8215s  +1.2328s
27.  Tony Ricciardello     Holden Commodore VE   1m23.2665s  +1.6778s
28.  Daniel Gaunt          Holden Commodore VE   1m23.3133s  +1.7246s
29.  Andrew Thompson       Holden Commodore VE   1m27.5393s  +5.9506s