Courtney takes his first win with HRT

James Courtney has struck back after his penalty in Friday’s race to win Race 2 at Abu Dhabi in a toe to
toe fight with Jason Bright for a sensational finish.

The race was quickly thrown into disarray at the start as Tony D’Alberto jumped across the corner into Tim Slade, spinning the SBR driver around, which also saw HRT’s Garth Tander eliminated from the race, and Todd Kelly also retiring with broken suspension.

A lengthy safety car period saw several drivers switch to an alternative strategy. Jamie Whincup pitted from the lead along with Mark Winterbottom, who had passed Lowndes at the start. Winterbottom got ahead on the stop – but as they both rejoined alongside the safety car, Winterbottom slotted into the lead whilst there was an argument in the pits over whether it was Whincup or Steven Johnson that should be in second place.

The call eventually came in putting Whincup in second, but at the restart things changed quickly as Winterbottom went wide out of the final corner on to the start straight allowing Whincup back into the lead for a moment, as Johnson swept down the inside of both of them to take the lead and hold on for four laps, before Whincup re-passed him, with Johnson pitting soon after.

During these laps, James Courtney and Jason Bright pitted, betting on a safety car in the final stage of the race – they made the right call, as Triple Eight’s Craig Lowndes, out of position after being forced to queue behind his team mate in the first wave of stops, lost control whilst passing Alex Davison and crashed into Russell Ingall’s Paul Morris Motorsport run Commodore.

Lowndes recovered to the pits, whilst Ingall stopped out on track on lap 20, causing the second safety car deployment.

At the end of the safety car period, Jamie Whincup made a quick dive into the pits to refuel to the end, with FPR calling second placed Winterbottom straight in, but as Winterbottom drove across the pit lane blend line, was later forced to serve a penalty which dropped him down the order.

At the restart, James Courtney led from Fabian Coulthard and David Reynolds, whilst Bright, who had stopped a few laps later, started working his way up the order in the Brad Jones Racing Commodore.

A few more incidents shuffled up the order, with Whincup losing ground after contact with Jason Bargwanna, and Will Davison spinning into Lee Holdsworth, forcing the Garry Rogers Motorsport driver into the pits for repairs. Davison was also ordered to serve a penalty, as was Craig Lowndes for his earlier contact with Ingall.

With nine laps to go, Bright was charging fast, now in second place after passing Coulthard. Five laps from the end, Bright was right on Courtney who was on full fuel save mode. Bright assumed the lead with three laps to go, but Courtney now increased his pace, told by HRT he had a little more fuel to play with, and a ding-dong battle ensued with Courtney and Bright changing the lead several times, with Bright chasing BJR’s first win in the championship. In the end, Courtney won out, crossing the finish line six-tenths of a second ahead of Bright, with Jamie Whincup recovering to third as the other runners had to pit for fuel.

David Reynolds finished fourth for Kelly Racing, with Michael Caruso finishing fifth. Craig Lowndes was eventually classified in 21st place, with Mark Winterbottom eventually finishing in 14th in the FPR Falcon.