Ford dominates Australian Grand Prix

There was no stopping the blue oval at the Australian Grand Prix event of the V8 Supercar series this weekend. Ford won all three races and passing Holden in the manufacturers challenge.
“While this event is not part of our Championship I am thrilled to have done so well in front of our major partners at this event,” said Craig Lowndes who won the first and third race of the weekend.

Lowndes started from pole position in the first race and led from start to finish. On the way to his dominating victory, Lowndes managed to break the lap record that team mate Jamie Whincup had set in 2006.

“I’m sure he’ll be p***** off with that,” Lowndes laughed

Mark Winterbottom claimed second ahead of Will Davidson who complained about the lack of grip due to the colder temperatures.

“Certainly there’s some pretty smart guys there (at HRT) and we’ll have a chat tonight and hopefully they’ve got a couple of answers to make it a bit more race-y tomorrow,” he said.

Winterbottom claimed the win in the second race only just ahead of Will Davidson in the Holden Commodore VE. Race one winner Craig Lowndes finished third.

Stone Brothers Racing’s Shane Van Gisbergen made a brave move on Lowndes earlier in the race after a restart. The 18 year old threw his car over the grass and narrowly passed Whincup with centimeters left to the concrete wall.

“I don’t know what happened, he (Whincup) had a coming together with someone and he was just sitting in the middle of the track,” Van Gisbergen explained.

“I was beside another car as well and he went one way and I went the other and Jamie was sort of in the middle.

Van Giesbergen was later passed by Whincup and eventually finished seventh.

The third race saw Lowndes getting back on top again, winning ahead of Winterbottom and Russell Ingall in third.

Lowndes was more than pleased with the weekend and said that he actually took it a bit easy in the final race.

“I didn’t take too many risks. If I had pressure in front or behind, who knows what could have happened but we lucky enough to get the gap and we just ran it straight,” said Lowndes.

Will Davidson finished fourth but said after the race that he nearly ended this race in the wall.

“Something broke in the front of the car or it lost the power steering and I went flying across the 11-12 chicane,” he explained.

“I was about to bring it in to the pits but I looked on the big screen and saw the pack was a fair way back so I just muscled it around for the last lap and got passed on the last corner by Russell.”