Photo: V8 Supercars

Fabian Coulthard breaks Red Bull Racing stranglehold

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Fabian Coulthard broke the five-race winning streak of Red Bull Racing Australia after winning the third instalment of the Austin 400 in Texas. The kiwi came under investigation for failing to maintain speed on the lap 16 restart, however the stewards have yet to make a decision regarding whether or not an infringement was made.

Coulthard started the race from third on the grid, and immediately argued Mark Winterbottom for second position in the opening laps. The Lockwood Racing pilot made an opportunistic move up the inside of Jamie Whincup on the 4th lap, and jumped Mark Winterbottom during the pit-stop phase to assume the lead of the race. From there, the 30 year-old Kiwi never looked back, and took the race win ahead of Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup respectively. It was again the same three drivers to have occupied the podium in both races yesterday, albeit in a different order.

Jonathon Webb and Shane van Gisbergen rounded out the top 5 respectively in a strong showing from Tekno Autosport. Garth Tander brought his HRT VF Commodore home in 6th, ahead of a frustrated Mark Winterbottom for Ford Performance Racing. Clearly struggling to find the pace of his team mate, Team BOC’s Jason Bright finished 8th ahead of Rick Kelly’s Nissan Altima and James Courtney in the second HRT entry.

Earlier, Jamie Whincup took his third consecutive pole-position at the Circuit of the America’s, setting a blistering 1.32.1, fourth tenths of a second ahead of his Triple-8 counterpart Craig Lowndes. The second row of the grid consisted of Fabian Coulthard’s Lockwood-backed VF Commodore, and Mark Winterbottom’s FPR Falcon. Rick Kelly recorded the best ever qualifying result for Nissan under the new Car of the Future regulations, occupying 5th on the grid after putting in a lap 7 tenths of a second slower than Whincup.

In a significantly more competitive 100 kilometre sprint compared to those held yesterday, it initially appeared as though Mark Winterbottom would break through for his first win in exactly a year. However, after leading into the pit-stops, Winterbottom’s FPR crew struggled with a slow tyre change, which put him back to 7th where he finished the race.

While it was a generally clean race, the 27 lap event wasn’t without incident. David Wall made significant contact with Scott Pye at turn 1, while Alexandre Premat and Tony D’Alberto also came together in the early laps. No further action was taken in relation to both incidents. DJR’s Chaz Mostert also made contact with the Norton 360 Nissan of Michael Caruso on the approach to the final turn, however Caruso was able to recover to finish 15th.

Debris from the rear of Tim Slade’s HHA backed E63 AMG triggered a safety car intervention on lap 13. The 27 year-old was the highest placed Erebus Mercedes pilot, managing to finish 20th even after suffering damage.

Craig Lowndes now sits 2nd in the standings after Will Davison could only manage 12th place. Jamie Whincup continues to build on his healthy lead at the top of the championship, while Red Bull Racing continues to dominate the teams’ championship. The final, 100km race of the Austin 400 will commence shortly. Whincup starts from pole position.