The four-time Bathurst 1000 champion showed his composure in a hotly contested Friday qualifying session by retaking the lead on several occasions and finishing with a final time of two minutes and 4.1093 seconds.

David Reynolds (2:04.2648) and Scott McLaughlin (2:04.2862) rounded up the top three.

Shane van Gisbergen, James Courtney, Craig Lowndes, Cam Waters, Nick Percat, Anton de Pasquale and Garth Tander rounded out the all important top 10 that will contest Saturday’s shootout.

“It was a really tough session because we’ve had no dry running up until qualifying. To throw green tyres on a car and belt around one of the best bits of road in the world was tough for everyone,” Whincup said.

“The real heroes of my day were the engineers. It’s just an educated guess on where you think the car should be.

“The car is completely different to what it was here last year. It was a cracking session and we were able to keep improving as it went on.

“The track was surprisingly quick. I expected it to be a lot slipperier than what it was. Cool track obviously gives us grip but there was zero rubber out there.”

Defending Bathurst 1000 champion Reynolds got the ball rolling with a 2:05.9919 on his first flying lap of the window.

It was clear that the 2:04’s weren’t going to be far away when McLaughlin lowered the mark to 2:05.3913 inside the opening 10 minutes.

Reynolds and Rick Kelly were on pace to challenge McLaughlin’s time but they went off at Hell Corner and the Chase respectively.

Courtney had no such trouble when he jumped into first with a 2:05.1032.

Whincup announced his arrival on the scene with a 2:04.5765 just shy of the halfway mark in the 40 minute session.

Reynolds, Chaz Mostert, McLaughlin, van Gisbergen and Waters soon joined Whincup in the sub 125-second club but none could match his time.

Courtney (2:04.4759) eventually got there but Whincup (2:04.3021) was quick to reclaim position number one.

Jack Le Brocq contacted the wall at Hell Corner and brought out the red flag with a tick under 10 minutes left in the session.

McLaughlin and Reynolds both took first place after the session restarted, before Whincup acted as the heart breaker once again with his 2:04.1093.

Saturday’s top 10 shootout starts from 5.10pm.