Mark Winterbottom closes in on Whincup after Winton victory
Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom crossed the line first in the second V8 Supercars race at Winton, fending off Jason Bright’s Brad Jones Racing Holden to win by four tenths of a second. The victory also meant that the Ford driver made a lot of ground in the points on championship leader Jamie Whincup, who retired.
Whincup started from 18th position on the grid after technical problems in qualifying and the Triple Eight Holden driver only got to the second corner in the race. Garry Rogers Motorsport’s Alexandre Prémat went off track and took out Whincup, as well as Holden Racing Team’s Garth Tander and the Nissan of Michael Caruso when rejoining the track.
Winterbottom was able to pull clear in the early stages of the race. Bright started a chase for the lead and was very close to Winterbottom towards the end of the race, but unable to get past.
The second Holden Racing Team Commodore of James Courtney fought his way past the Holden of Tony D’Alberto to claim the final podium finish, while Tekno Autosport’s Shane van Gisbergen was unable to make a move on D’Alberto, settling for fifth position. The other two Ford Performance Racing Falcons of David Reynolds and Will Davison claimed positions six and seven.
Yesterday’s winner James Moffat had a tough race, qualifying 25th but fought hard to finish 11th in the Nissan Altima.
Winterbottom’s victory means that the Ford driver climbs to third in the championship, just seven points behind Lowndes in second and 62 points behind championship leader Whincup.
