Craig Lowndes in charge after Tasmania
Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Craig Lowndes is in charge of the drivers’ championship after the V8 Supercars weekend in Tasmania. Lowndes has extended his lead from 52 points ahead of the weekend to 70 after.
”It’s a good start to the season for Car No.888 but it’s a long year ahead and the team on top will be the one that makes the fewest mistakes and makes the best of bad situations,” said Lowndes
Team mate and reigning champion Whincup scored strongly during weekend with two victories and a second place, climbing from seventh to second in the championship .
”We had a reasonable start but Lowndesy was on an absolute rocket (in the third race) and deserved the lead from the start. All in all it’s been a good weekend for us and we’re looking forward to jumping straight back in at Winton,” said Whincup.
Volvo Polestar Racing’s Scott McLaughlin is another driver moving up through the points, climbing from 15th to seventh position thanks to two top five finishes and sixth in the final race after, yet another, exciting fight with Whincup.
”It has been a good weekend for us, climbing to seventh in the Championship. We had some technical issues that we need to continue work on, but the car has been great and the pace is there for the top fight,” said McLaughlin.
Brad Jones Racing driver Fabian Coulthard dropped one position to third in the championship, but still in contact with the leading duo, 15 points adrift from Whincup.
”The car is fast and the guys did a great job with the pitstops – it’s pretty awesome. The sooner we can unlock the car speed in qualifying the better. We learnt a few things even in that race that could help us for qualifying. We’ll knuckle down before Winton next weekend and build on what we’ve done so far,” said Coulthard.
Mark Winterbottom is the sole Ford driver in the top ten of the championship after this year’s first six races and had a strong weekend in Tasmania.
”We had two podiums this weekend so we have some positive points. I can’t wait to go racing again in six days’ time,” said Winterbottom.
V8 Supercars continues in less than a week with the Winton 400.
