TeamVodafone’s once invincible aura is seemingly cracking after another trying race at the Melbourne Grand Prix while their arch factory rival goes from strength to strength.
Champion Jamie Whincup had another day of disappointment when he got tangled in an early melee and was forced to the back of the grid while Craig Lowndes was seventh.
Meantime Winterbottom’s FPR team finished 1-3 with only Holden Racing Team’s Garth Tander wedged between the two. It was the third straight win in the MSS Security V8 Supercar Challenge for Winterbottom.
The race was reduced to a seven lap sprint after a first lap melee forced a stoppage and a restart. On different strategies Winterbottom and Tander pitted early while Davison stayed out and pitted in his second last lap.
It meant Davison popped out for his final lap with Winterbottom and Tander thundering down on him at full throttle on the main straight. Winterbottom passed him straight away while Tander took marginally longer before the inevitable happened.
“It was pretty exciting,” Davison said. “We ran that strategy same as yesterday. When you are running down and you know the leaders are coming is a daunting feeling. You hope you might be able to hang on. “
Winterbottom: “I got a slight gap on Garth but I knew he was there and then there was the unknown that was Will. When Will came out I watched the big screens for the last lap and watched him have a red hot go with Garth.”
Tander: “I knew that Will would be struggling on cold tyres. I know there is nothing worse coming out of pit lane when you know you are going to struggle.”
A bizarre pileup on lap one which left Taz Douglas’ iSelect Commodore wedged in the air between the cars of Karl Reindler and Russell Ingall. The race was red-flagged for a restart as officials began the complex cleanup of three cars merged almost as one.
Whilst it wasn’t a heavy accident it blocked the track.
It came as a result of what appeared to be a gentle nudge from behind from Holden Racing Team’s James Courtney on Whincup that sent the latter spirally across the track. He was then ‘t-boned’ by Reindler.
Douglas could not avoid the accident and as his car slid into Reindler sideways the Supercheap Auto Commodore of Ingall pushed him into the air.
At the restart Winterbottom got the jump from Shane Van Gisbergen. Both pitted on the second lap leaving Davison and Coulthard as the race leaders before their stop.
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