Jamie Whincup continued his strong start to the season by taking pole position for the second race of the Desert 400 at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Whincup was well down the order with just a couple of minutes remaining but like most of the field, left his best run until the final minutes of the 20-minute session, going to the top with 40 seconds of the session remaining to take pole position by one and a half tenths of a second.

Whincup's time bumped Mark Winterbottom down to second, with James Courtney in third another quarter of a second farther back. Holden Racing Team's Will Davison just edged out Lee Holdsworth for the fourth-fastest time.

Sixth and seventh were two drivers who headed the times for much of the session, Jason Bright and Garth Tander, Tander even retaking the top spot with just over two minutes remaining before his rivals pushed him all the way back down to seventh.

After qualifying 22nd for race one, Jason Richards went much better today and cracked the top 10 to take eighth place just ahead of Whincup's teammate Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards, having another good outing.

Shane van Gisbergen was unable to repeat his performance of second-fastest in yesterday's qualifying, however, and will start from 14th on the grid.

Another two drivers who started from inside the top-10 yesterday were teammates Greg Murphy and Russell Ingall, who will start today's race from 19th and 21st, respectively.

Pos  Driver                Car                   Time
 1.  Jamie Whincup         Holden Commodore VE   2m05.3684s 
 2.  Mark Winterbottom     Ford Falcon FG        2m05.5044s  +0.1360
 3.  James Courtney        Ford Falcon FG        2m05.7606s  +0.3922
 4.  Will Davison          Holden Commodore VE   2m05.8111s  +0.4427
 5.  Lee Holdsworth        Holden Commodore VE   2m05.8368s  +0.4684
 6.  Jason Bright          Holden Commodore VE   2m05.9067s  +0.5383
 7.  Garth Tander          Holden Commodore VE   2m05.9439s  +0.5755
 8.  Jason Richards        Holden Commodore VE   2m06.0623s  +0.6939
 9.  Craig Lowndes         Holden Commodore VE   2m06.0839s  +0.7155
10.  Steven Richards       Ford Falcon FG        2m06.0863s  +0.7179
11.  Rick Kelly            Holden Commodore VE   2m06.1611s  +0.7927
12.  Todd Kelly            Holden Commodore VE   2m06.1702s  +0.8018
13.  Jason Bargwanna       Holden Commodore VE   2m06.2087s  +0.8403
14.  Shane Van Gisbergen   Ford Falcon FG        2m06.2789s  +0.9105
15.  Tim Slade             Ford Falcon FG        2m06.3467s  +0.9783
16.  Michael Caruso        Holden Commodore VE   2m06.4013s  +1.0329
17.  Fabian Coulthard      Holden Commodore VE   2m06.4979s  +1.1295
18.  Jonathon Webb         Ford Falcon FG        2m06.5415s  +1.1731
19.  Greg Murphy           Holden Commodore VE   2m06.5661s  +1.1977
20.  Steven Johnson        Ford Falcon FG        2m06.6226s  +1.2542
21.  Russell Ingall        Holden Commodore VE   2m06.6262s  +1.2578
22.  Alex Davison          Ford Falcon FG        2m06.9360s  +1.5676
23.  Andrew Thompson       Holden Commodore VE   2m06.9451s  +1.5767
24.  Paul Dumbrell         Ford Falcon FG        2m07.0326s  +1.6642
25.  Tony D'Alberto        Holden Commodore VE   2m07.1872s  +1.8188
26.  Dean Fiore            Ford Falcon FG        2m07.7222s  +2.3538
27.  Daniel Gaunt          Holden Commodore VE   2m08.1029s  +2.7345
28.  Karl Reindler         Holden Commodore VE   2m08.1409s  +2.7725
29.  Tony Ricciardello     Holden Commodore VE   2m08.9497s  +3.5813