Photo: V8 Supercars

Mark Winterbottom takes first win of 2014 for Ford in Winton

By

Mark Winterbottom claimed the first victory for Ford of 2014 in the final V8 Supercars race of the Winton 400 weekend, moving him up to second in the championship.
“That is awesome to get a win. The team has done an incredible job. Hopefully this is a start of many victories,” said Winterbottom.

HRT driver James Courtney claimed second position in the race with Walkinshaw Racing’s Tim Slade taking the final podium spot, despite a brief off track excursion in the closing stages of the race.

There was a lot of drama during the race, with an unusually high number of drivers receiving drive through penalties for speeding in the pit lane. One of the first to be penalised was pole-sitter Scott McLaughlin.

The Volvo driver headed the field from pole for the first part of the race, creating a gap of over three seconds. But Ford Performance Racing driver Winterbottom hunted him down and got ahead of him for the lead. McLaughlin was in contention for a podium finish after that, but lost his chance after the penalty which dropped him to 16th position in the end.

Another victim of the drive-through penalties was Brad Jones Racing’s Fabian Coulthard. The Holden driver was on strong form and looked set to challenge for the race victory, but after his pit-stop, which he made right behind Winterbottom, Coulthard received a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane, dropping him to eleventh position in the end.

The Triple Eight Race Engineering duo of Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup had another tough race. Lowndes crossed the line in seventh position, keeping the championship lead, while Whincup crossed the line in tenth position.

Shane Van Gisbergen was another driver to drop down from the top fight. The Tekno Autosports driver started second on the grid, but started to drop a lot of places in the opening laps. The Holden driver pitted early for another set of tyres and was back on pace again, but Van Gisbergen lost a lot of time and finished 12th in the end.

The next V8 Supercars race weekend is the ITM 500 Auckland in New Zealand in three weeks’ time.