|
Ford
Performance Racing extended its V8 Supercar Championship Series lead at
Queensland Raceway today when Mark Winterbottom finished second in Race One.
The
27-year-old, who qualified second earlier in the day, hounded race winner
James Courtney for the entire 38 laps, never getting more than 0.6s adrift
and setting the fastest lap of the race. FPR executed a perfect pit stop,
delivering Frosty back on track wheel-to-wheel with the rival Ford driver,
but Courtney had the racing line and did not make any errors.
FPR
team-mate Steve Richards started from 11th on the grid after a
slight error in qualifying. He survived a chaotic first lap, making up two
places in the process, but was then clearly held back by Will Davison.
Despite trying every trick in the book, Richo could not find a way past and
finished seventh, closing in on fourth-place Rick Kelly in the championship standings.
Tomorrow’s
Race Two will start at 11am.
Mark
Winterbottom
#5
Orrcon Steel Ford Credit FPR Falcon
“I
didn’t give up; if I had, Russell (Ingall) would have been on me for
sure! You keep pressuring but it just didn’t happen for me; James
stayed on it the whole time and when he does that, you can’t do much
more.
“The
car’s straight, tomorrow’s another day and the team is feeling
good. This track has been a good one for Garth Tander so we thought if we
could survive it, we would be doing OK but now we’re fighting for the
win. Our weak tracks are proving to be pretty strong, so I can’t wait
to get to our strong tracks!”
Steve
Richards
#6
Castrol FPR Falcon
“The
first lap was chaotic but you’re just calm, concentrating on any gap
that opens up in front of you, muscling yourself into them and making forward
progress. There’s no sense of euphoria or panic. In this race I was
effectively boxed in on lap one. I couldn’t go sideways, I
couldn’t go forward. Where I was, was where I was going to stay!”
Tim
Edwards
Team
Principal
“We
clearly had the fastest cars out there; if you watch them both for the last
ten laps, they were hounding the cars in front of them whereas the rest of
the field were all spread out. They just weren’t quite fast enough to
get past.”
V8
Supercar Championship Series Round 7
Queensland
Raceway
QUALIFYING
|
1
|
James
Courtney
|
SBR
|
|
2
|
Mark
Winterbottom
|
#5
Orrcon Ford Credit FPR Falcon
|
|
3
|
Russell
Ingall
|
PMM
|
|
4
|
Craig
Lowndes
|
888
|
|
5
|
Mark
Skaife
|
HRT
|
|
6
|
Garth
Tander
|
HRT
|
|
11
|
Steve
Richards
|
#6
Castrol FPR Falcon
|
V8
Supercar Championship Series Round 7
Queensland
Raceway
RACE
ONE
|
1
|
James
Courtney
|
SBR
|
|
2
|
Mark
Winterbottom
|
#5
Orrcon Ford Credit FPR Falcon
|
|
3
|
Russell
Ingall
|
PMM
|
|
4
|
Garth
Tander
|
HRT
|
|
5
|
Mark
Skaife
|
HRT
|
|
6
|
Will
Davison
|
DJR
|
|
7
|
Steve
Richards
|
#6
Castrol FPR Falcon
|
V8
Supercar Championship Series
CHAMPIONSHIP
POINTS
|
1
|
Mark
Winterbottom
|
1494
|
|
2
|
Garth Tander
|
1412
|
|
3
|
Jamie
Whincup
|
1332
|
|
4
|
Rick
Kelly
|
1268
|
|
5
|
Steve
Richards
|
1187
|
|
