V8 Supercar champion Jamie Whincup says the non-championship status of this weekend’s races at the Australian Grand Prix will not affect the level of competition on the track.

The TeamVodafone driver topped the timesheets after Thursday’s 30 minute all-in qualifying session at the Albert Park street circuit, coming in just ahead of championship rival Garth Tander.

Whincup clocked a one minute and 57.931 seconds lap in the qualifying session, with Tander second-fastest with a 1:57.997.

New Zealand veteran Greg Murphy made it a Holden one-two-three, qualifying third fastest for Friday’s top 10 shootout with a 1:58.248 lap.

While the three sprint races to be held over the weekend mean nothing in terms of the championship ladder, Whincup was adamant there is still plenty of drive to come out on top, particularly after Tander’s double win in the Clipsal 500 earlier this month.

“There’s always a good battle here, it’s always a good race,” Whincup said.

“Everyone’s going to use their tyres this year because it’s compulsory, there’ll be no-one trying to save a set for somewhere else. That’s a good initiative that’s come in.

“We’re just going to crack it out and who knows? Hopefully we’ll all have the same tyre strategy, we’ll all just put our good tyres on at the same time and we all can just battle it out.”

Tander, who recovered from a disappointing opening two rounds in the Middle East to surge back into championship contention in Adelaide, said he was enjoying the early rivalry with Whincup.

“Shootout tomorrow is going to be a difficult one, that’s one of the hardest laps we do because we don’t drive the car until the shootout tomorrow and the track grip changes considerably because the F1 guys are running,” he said.

“[I'm] looking forward to that, certainly the battle we’re having with Jamie at the moment is enjoyable, the car, set-up wise, is very different to what traditionally we’d run here and it’s responding very nicely.”

Murphy is also hoping to impress at Albert Park after missing the season-opening round in Abu Dhabi and having a disappointing weekend in Adelaide after a promising start.

“We’ve got pressure on to start doing what we’d told everyone we were going to do, and that’s to be competitive,” he said.

“This is a pretty good start.”

The other drivers to qualify for Friday’s top 10 shootout were James Courtney, Rick Kelly, Jason Richards, Paul Dumbrell and Shane van Gisbergen.

The shootout will be held from 3:00pm (AEDT) and will determine pole position and the front five rows of the grid for the day’s 13-lap sprint race starting at 6.15pm.

-AAP