Craig Lowndes penalised and crashes in practice

Craig Lowndes had a poor start to the Phillip Island Supercars weekend, first receiving a 15-point penalty from the previous race weekend and crashing out of the first practice session.

The Triple Eight Race Engineering driver received the penalty for his incident in the fourth race with Prodrive Racing Australia driver Cameron Waters.

“I still don’t think so and they said Cam is not sure that I hit him either,” said Lowndes to supercars.com.

“But they think that there was a bit of contact there so they have to do what they have to do. They were very thorough and we have to accept what they’ve said and get on with it.”

Lowndes had 15 points removed in the drivers’ championship where he is currently seventh.

The penalty was issued following a hearing on the morning of the first day at Phillip Island and things went from bad to worse as Lowndes crashed at high speed in the first practice session.

The Holden driver had a front right puncture, sending him hard into the barriers. Lowndes was unhurt while the team has got a lot of repair work to do on his car.