Two in a row for Jamie Whincup
Jamie Whincup took his second victory of the weekend in the final race of the Chill Perth 360 at Barbagallo. The Red Bull Racing driver withstood the challenge from team mate Craig Lowndes, and extended his championship lead to 65 points over Will Davison.
Red Bull Racing Australia continued their Barbagallo dominance, as Lowndes followed the championship leader home to make it a one-two finish for the Queensland based outfit. Jason Bright secured third place for Brad Jones Racing, his second podium of the weekend.
Whincup took pole position in the second qualifying session held earlier in the morning, ahead of team mate Craig Lowndes, who qualified second. Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom set the third fastest time, while the Kiwi combination of Fabian Coulthard and Scott McLaughlin rounded of the top 5 on the grid.
Following an oil spill in a support category prior to the race, Lowndes was forced to start on the particularly dirty side of the track, and was jumped by Jamie Whincup and Mark Winterbottom into the first corner as predicted. Whincup and Winterbottom had an excursion through the gravel on lap 17, after Maro Engel’s wounded Erebus Mercedes dropped water coolant on the entry to turn 7. Both managed to recover prior to the first round of pit-stops.
Craig Lowndes assumed the lead from Whincup shortly before the field was bunched by two safety car interventions in quick succession. Michael Caruso’s beached Norton 360 Nissan Altima prompted the first yellow flag period on lap 19, while an incident between David Wall and Russel Ingall saw the Pedders safety car emerge once again on lap 28.
Lowndes lost the lead immediately upon the lap 31 restart, and wasn’t able to catch team mate Jamie Whincup who managed to develop a 1.5 second margin by the chequered flag. It would be the second Red Bull Racing one-two finish for the day, reminiscent of the team’s dominance in previous seasons.
Brad Jones Racing impressed once again, with Jason Bright on the podium, and Fabian Coulthard securing 7th place for Lockwood Racing. Bright now sits 4th in the championship, while Coulthard is only 4 points out of the top 5 in the standings.
Will Davison took 4th in his Pepsi Max sponsored FG Falcon, just ahead of his Ford Performance Racing stable mate, David Reynolds, who crossed the line 5th. Of the other FPR entries, Mark Winterbottom, suffered wheel nut issues during his scheduled pit-stop, and finished 12th overall after running in 2nd behind Whincup in the opening stint. Alex Davison suffered a disappointing race 12 of the season, bringing his Jeld-Wen Falcon home in 16th after being forced to double-stack behind David Reynolds during his pit-stop.
Shane Van Gisbergen took his third top-ten finish of the weekend for Tekno Autosport, ending the final 100 kilometre sprint in 6th. James Moffat finished a further 1.2 seconds behind BJR’s Fabian Coulthard, as he once again led the Nissan Altima charge for Norton Racing in 8th. Garth Tander finally broke into the top 10 for HRT in front of his home crowd, while 21 year-old debutant, Chaz Mostert, rounded out the top-10 for Dick Johnson Racing.
After the twelfth race of the season, Holden’s Jamie Whincup leads Will Davison by 65 points. Craig Lowndes sits a further 62 points behind Davison, while Jason Bright and Shane van Gisbergen are placed 4th and 5th respectively. The next stop on the 2013 V8 Supercar calendar is the Austin 400 in Texas. The categories’ first visit to North America will see races 13, 14, 15 and 16 of the season take place in two weeks’ time.
