Wearing tyres on the abrasive Bahrain circuit cost kiwi Shane Van Gisbergen his second straight podium in race here of the V8 Supercar Championship today.

Van Gisbergen, who qualified for the front row for the first time, had to be content with fifth place after extreme tyre wear stunted his progress.

“I managed to hang in there for the first five or so laps but then the tyres went off so much,” Van Gisbergen said. “We were four seconds a lap slower. It felt like I was on ice out there.

“It’s great to get my first front row start, it’s great for SP Tools and SBR. The car is obviously good in qualifying so we have no problems there we just need to make sure the car looks after its tyres better.”

It did not stop champion Jamie Whincup collecting his third straight win in the series, clearing out from pole position after qualifying to finish clear of Mark Winterbottom (Ford Performance) and his Team Vodafone partner Craig Lowndes.

Former champion Garth Tander had an improved showing for fourth for Holden Racing team ahead of Van Gisbergen, who was the only New Zealander in the top ten.

Shane Van Gisbergen in Bahrain today. Photo: Mark Horsburgh

Greg Murphy, in his season debut in the Castrol Holden, finished 16th, one place ahead of Fabian Coulthard (Bundaberg Red Holden) with Jason Richards (Team BOC Holden) 19th and Daniel Gaunt (Gulf Western Holden) 26th, while Steven Richards did not finish.

Winterbottom believes his time will come after a second and a third in the opening Abu Dhabi round then a second in Bahrain.

“The day will come. At the moment we will keep tuning what we have got, keep bagging points, keep learning and when the time comes it will come quickly,” Winterbottom said.

“He (Whincup) is on top of his game in a team with the momentum they have got. I have the best engineer in pit lane so we will rattle heads and close the gap. I have got full faith that we can do the job.”

It was close to the perfect day for Whincup when he claimed Armor All pole position after being set a huge challenge firstly by Winterbottom and then Van Gisbergen.

“Of course every Championship win is special in its own way,” Whincup said.“Today was a great day for TeamVodafone and myself. Pole this morning was definitely one of my best. The pressure you have got going on to go out last to beat an already cracking lap is hard work.

“So far we have made the right calls but we will face our challenges during the year. I know this Championship is going to come down to two points at the end of the year, it always does.”

Once again Whincup made a clean start and cleared away early. Winterbottom followed after nabbing Van Gisbergen from his first appearance on the front row of the grid. The opening laps were willing down the field with several altercations.

The second and final race in Bahrain starts at 3.30pm local time today.