Mark Winterbottom takes victory in Hamilton race two

Mark Winterbottom won the second race of the weekend in Hamilton, New Zealand, leading Triple Eight driver Jamie Whincup to the chequered flag to take his first win of the year.

FPR team-mate Will Davison had started from pole position, but a good start from Winterbottom from second on the grid saw the Sydney-driver able to squeeze down the inside of Davison into Turn 1 and take the lead, which he would never relinquish throughout the race.

A slow start for Jamie Whincup in the Triple Eight Holden Commodore saw the reigning champion drop from third to seventh at the start, with team-mate Craig Lowndes positioned as the best threat to the two FPR drivers in the early stages, taking over from Whincup in P3.

The race was relatively uneventful, with the main talking point being the Turn 4 chicane sensor, which detected more infringements in this race than in yesterday’s, with drivers penalised with a drive-through penalty if they were deemed to have cut the corner on six occassions.

Garry Rogers Motorsport’s Alexandre Prémat was the most frequent offender, his race already spoiled after being spun by Jason Bright’s Brad Jones Racing car on lap 5, for which Bright was made to serve a penalty. Prémat served a total of four drive-through penalties for cutting Turn 4 with no less than 24 offences in the 59 lap race.

Steve Owen crashed his Dick Johnson Racing Ford Falcon out on lap 14, collecting the tyre bundle at Turn 4 and riding high over the kerbs, landing with broken front right suspension and was just able to drag the car back to the pits into retirement.

Debris brought out the only safety car of the race on lap 18 as Garth Tander in the Holden Racing Team Commodore tried to pass Tony D’Alberto’s Ford Falcon into Turn 6, but was squeezed into the tyre bundle on the apex. Tander returned to the pits for an 11 lap repair whilst the remains of his front bumper was removed from the track.

Jamie Whincup recovered ground throughout the race, passing team-mate Craig Lowndes for third on lap 26 and then dived down the inside of Will Davison’s FPR Falcon at Turn 2 on Lap 30 for second, and emerged just behind Winterbottom after the second round of pit stops.

Winterbottom went on to build a short lead from Whincup just after the stops, until Whincup increased his pace and began to close down the leader with just under ten laps remaining. Whincup had been driving conservatively the whole race after damaging his car in qualifying at the Turn 4 chicane, and was the last driver to be receive a warning for cutting that chicane in the race.

Both Winterbottom and Whincup battled throughout the final laps with the Ford driver doing his utmost to keep the Holden of Whincup behind, with both drivers using their maximum ‘5 strikes’ at Turn 4.

Winterbottom went on to cross the line less than a second ahead of Whincup in the final visit for the V8 Supercars to Hamilton, with the circuit ending its arrangement with V8 Supercars after five years.

Jamie Whincup claws back nine points on Davison’s championship lead from yesterday, and will head to next month’s round at Barbagallo 21 points behind Davison, with Winterbottom 168 points behind him.