FPR Fastest At Queensland

Frosty qualifies 2nd and finishes 2nd in Race 1

Ford Performance Racing extended its V8 Supercar Championship Series lead at Queensland Raceway today when Mark Winterbottom finished second in Race One.

The 27-year-old, who qualified second earlier in the day, hounded race winner James Courtney for the entire 38 laps, never getting more than 0.6s adrift and setting the fastest lap of the race. FPR executed a perfect pit stop, delivering Frosty back on track wheel-to-wheel with the rival Ford driver, but Courtney had the racing line and did not make any errors.

FPR team-mate Steve Richards started from 11th on the grid after a slight error in qualifying. He survived a chaotic first lap, making up two places in the process, but was then clearly held back by Will Davison. Despite trying every trick in the book, Richo could not find a way past and finished seventh, closing in on fourth-place Rick Kelly in the championship standings.

Tomorrow's Race Two will start at 11am.

Mark Winterbottom #5 Orrcon Steel Ford Credit FPR Falcon
'I didn't give up; if I had, Russell (Ingall) would have been on me for sure! You keep pressuring but it just didn't happen for me; James stayed on it the whole time and when he does that, you can't do much more.

'The car's straight, tomorrow's another day and the team is feeling good. This track has been a good one for Garth Tander so we thought if we could survive it, we would be doing OK but now we're fighting for the win. Our weak tracks are proving to be pretty strong, so I can't wait to get to our strong tracks!'

Steve Richards #6 Castrol FPR Falcon
'The first lap was chaotic but you're just calm, concentrating on any gap that opens up in front of you, muscling yourself into them and making forward progress. There's no sense of euphoria or panic. In this race I was effectively boxed in on lap one. I couldn't go sideways, I couldn't go forward. Where I was, was where I was going to stay!'

Tim Edwards Team Principal
'We clearly had the fastest cars out there; if you watch them both for the last ten laps, they were hounding the cars in front of them whereas the rest of the field were all spread out. They just weren't quite fast enough to get past.'

V8 Supercar Championship Series Round 7 Queensland Raceway QUALIFYING
1 James Courtney SBR
2 Mark Winterbottom #5 Orrcon Ford Credit FPR Falcon
3 Russell Ingall PMM
4 Craig Lowndes 888
5 Mark Skaife HRT
6 Garth Tander HRT
11 Steve Richards #6 Castrol FPR Falcon

V8 Supercar Championship Series Round 7 Queensland Raceway RACE ONE
1 James Courtney SBR
2 Mark Winterbottom #5 Orrcon Ford Credit FPR Falcon
3 Russell Ingall PMM
4 Garth Tander HRT
5 Mark Skaife HRT
6 Will Davison DJR
7 Steve Richards #6 Castrol FPR Falcon

V8 Supercar Championship Series CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS
1 Mark Winterbottom 1494
2 Garth Tander 1412
3 Jamie Whincup 1332
4 Rick Kelly 1268
5 Steve Richards 1187