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FPR claims grand prix round
18 March 2012
Frosty wins 3 out of 4 races to claim the win
Ford Performance Racing has claimed overall victory at the Australian Grand Prix non-championship event with Mark Winterbottom accumulating enough points across all four races to take the overall title. While he missed victory in the fourth and final race, he did enough by winning the previous three to finish with the most points of any driver in the field. Team-mate Will Davison was unlucky not to join him on the podium as despite finishing fourth today, his points netted him the same spot overall. David Reynolds showed he has taken further steps with sixth today after a feisty drive from eighth on the grid. He claimed seventh for the round. Today’s race was held in the best conditions yet, though Winterbottom uncharacteristically struggled on the hard tyre early in the race. After switching to softs near the mid-point he quickly caught and passed the drivers ahead of him, before going on to take fifth. Davison ran a similar strategy again and stopped later in the race than much of the field. He gained a good advantage early and after his stop held fourth place to the line, matching the pace of drivers on the softer, faster tyre. Reynolds started well and diced with Winterbottom early. He then took the lead after Davison pitted and he executed a neat pass on Ford rival Lee Holdsworth. After pitting he again battled with Winterbottom and came home sixth. DRIVERS’ VIEW
Mark Winterbottom – #5 Orrcon Steel FPR FordRace 4: 5th – Best lap: 1m57.48sOverall: 1st – 274 points“It is great to take the overall win here as last year we were not even close to being in contention. Today we tried a few things which really didn’t give us the result we expected so I am obviously disappointed not to make a clean sweep but we’ll take the win either way. The thing that has made me happiest is my soft tyre pace. If we can carry the improvements we’ve made to tracks like Hamilton and Ipswich where we struggled last year, we will be looking good for the rest of the year.” Will Davison – #6 Tradingpost FPR FordRace 4: 4th– Best lap: 1m57.58sOverall: 4th – 252 points“I am frustrated to miss out on the podium as I just missed it last year as well. This is an event I enjoy so much and this weekend we’ve proven the steps forward we’ve made are genuine as the pace on soft tyres has been great. Today I couldn’t quite bridge the gap at the end to make up enough points for the podium, but that aside the team has shown again we are heading in the right direction.” David Reynolds – #55 The Bottle-O FPR FordRace 4: 6th – Best lap: 1m57.84sOverall: 7th – 180 points“I had a great race today and battled really well on many occasions. I was close to Frosty early on and then had a great battle with Lee (Holdsworth) which I enjoyed, especially when I passed him. While I am still frustrated that I am adapting to the car I know we have taken some good steps forward this weekend and what has happened will help us later in the year when I am more settled with the team and car. A great result again for the team which is encouraging for all.”Tim Edwards – FPR Team Principal
“It was great to wrap up the overall event win and the weekend’s soft tyre pace was especially pleasing. While Mark didn’t win today he did enough to take the overall win which was credit to all that the team has done in recent times. Our pace here this year was night and day when compared to this time last year so to see such an improvement is very satisfying. Dave drove a great race today and Will was again in the mix so now we look forward to Tasmania and a return to scoring points.”
