[1] Jamie Whincup was fastest in qualifying for Team Vodafone but Mark Winterbottom secured his ninth pole position by just seven 10,000ths of a second.

Marcus Marshall also had an engine fail late in the running after clobbering a tyre bundle on the back chicane.

Fiore retired after a clash with Cameron McConville, while Ingall slowed in late lap with mechanical problems.

Whincup stormed away at the final restart to win from Winterbottom with Lee Holdsworth continuing his early season good form to finish third ahead of the consistent Steven Johnson Race 4 was held on Sunday 19 April.

Steven Johnson was fastest at the time, securing only his second pole position, his previous, Canberra in 2001, also a street circuit.

Teammate James Courtney started alongside as Ford dominated the timesheet occupying eight of the top ten position with the only Holdens the garry Rogers Motorsport duo of Michael Caruso and Lee Holdsworth occupying the third row of the grid behind Steven Richards and Jamie Whincup.

Johnson ran away from the start to lead while Steven Richards jumped past James Courtney for second as the safety car came out to attend a collision between Mark Winterbottom and the wall.

Whincup, unable to make progress against Johnson, Richards and Courtney, pitted early to try to get clear air, but it was a slow stop.

Two laps later Shane van Gisbergen took Rick Kelly off track with an overtaking move gone wrong at the hairpin.

Lowndes broke the front left corner of the car, leaving suspension and wheel deranged after clipping the tyre bundle at the back straight chicane.