|
Extreme
conditions at Winton Motor Raceway did not upset the V8 Supercar
Championship Series order during today’s practice session, with Ford
Performance Racing still rising to the top.
Despite
gale-force winds and torrential downpours, the Melbourne-based team posted
the second and ninth fastest times, Steve Richards missing out on a top
three slot in the Castrol FPR Falcon thanks to debris on the track during
his flying lap.
Championship
leader Mark Winterbottom continued his unflappable consistency, topping the
time sheets for most of the afternoon despite working to resolve an engine
misfire in the Orrcon Steel Ford Credit FPR Falcon. He was edged off the
top spot in the last few minutes however by HRT’s Garth Tander.
Qualifying
for round eight begins tomorrow (Saturday) at 11.15am.
Mark
Winterbottom
#5
Orrcon Steel Ford Credit FPR Falcon
“We
were on top there for the majority of the session but got out-lapped on the
greens [tyres]. We’re there or there abouts though, so I’m not
worried. The weather is obviously a bit hard; very tough conditions for strategy
and set-up and we had a couple of issues to deal with in that session.
Still, we did the changes that we had to do and got second fastest in the
process. I’m pretty pleased with that.”
Steve
Richards
#6
Castrol FPR Falcon
“We
were on for a lap that was good enough for the top three but someone had
come off at turn 11 and dragged water onto the track. We slipped wide and
ultimately didn’t post the best lap we could have.
“When
the circuit was wet the car was fantastic for grip and lap time. We were
second quickest in the wet, less than a tenth-of-a-second off the fastest
time, and we had to pass a car that lap! I was up to speed in the
first three laps out on wets; when the car gives you the confidence to push
that much in these conditions it’s always encouraging.”
Tim
Edwards
Team
Principal
“This
is our last bogie round. Although it’s our home test track,
it’s certainly not been a successful place for us in the past. We
know why that is, and we’ve certainly addressed the reasons in our
testing so I’d expect a big improvement, but you can’t design a
car especially for one track. We’re optimistic that we’ve got a
very good race car but we may struggle in qualifying.”
V8
Supercar Championship Series Round 8
Queensland
Raceway
PRACTICE
|
1
|
Garth
Tander
|
HRT
|
1:23.6947
|
|
2
|
Mark
Winterbottom
|
#5
Orrcon Steel Ford Credit FPR Falcon
|
1:24.0633
|
|
3
|
Fabian
Coulthard
|
PCR
|
1:24.0933
|
|
4
|
Rick
Kelly
|
TWR
|
1:24.0982
|
|
5
|
Craig
Lowndes
|
888
|
1:24.1183
|
|
6
|
Russell
Ingall
|
PMM
|
1:24.1510
|
|
7
|
Jamie
Whincup
|
888
|
1:24.1902
|
|
8
|
Mark
Skaife
|
HRT
|
1:24.2428
|
|
9
|
Steve
Richards
|
#6
Castrol FPR Falcon
|
1:24.2999
|
|
