Three from three for Winterbottom in red flagged race

Mark Winterbottom took his third win of the weekend with one more race to go in the V8 Supercars non-championship round in Melbourne, in a race which saw reigning champion Jamie Whincup involved in a multi-car pile-up (video).

The Ford Performance Racing driver won the seven lap sprint race, which was reduced in time due to a red flag interruption on the first lap, after Jamie Whincup’s Triple Eight Commodore was tapped into a spin by the HRT Commodore of James Courtney.

Whincup was then run into by Karl Reindler’s Kelly Racing entry, with Taz Douglas’s Lucas Dumbrell Motorsports Holden and Russell Ingall’s Walkinshaw Performance Commodore also caught up in the incident.

Winterbottom had slipped to fourth from pole on the first start, but with the grid reformed entirely for the restart had a better getaway and kept the lead, and continued to lead after the pit stop sequence as well.

Winterbottom’s FPR team-mate Will Davison opted to stay out until the penultimate lap, slotting in second place initially but was passed in short order by Garth Tander in the HRT Commodore as Davison struggled to warm up his tyres.

The final race of the weekend is on Sunday at 13:20 local time.