Clipsal 500 Drivers Summary

19 April 2017

Read Mark's thoughts on the Clipsal 500

DRIVERS’ VIEW

Mark Winterbottom – #5 The Bottle-O PRA Ford:
Race 1 Qualifying: 8th – 1m20.0565s
“We’re still playing with the car. When you have new engineers and drivers together it always takes a little bit of time to fine-tune. The key was to get in the shootout because now we get a practice session tomorrow to go again. We need to make the car better. It’s not doing what I want it to do but at the same time that qualifying lap I was pretty happy with because I knew it didn’t have anything left in it so that was as good as it could do, we got in the shootout and we’ll keep progressing. We’re enjoying it, we’ve just got to find that little thing that works and it’s not too far away.”

Mark Winterbottom also looked on for a strong result which was quickly taken away after being spun by Jamie Whincup with over 30 laps to go. Sitting in sixth position, the tag pushed Winterbottom back to 15th where he would finish the race. The incident will be reviewed in a post-race investigation.

Mark Winterbottom – #5 The Bottle-O PRA Ford:
Top 10 Shootout: 5th – 1m20.0176s
Race 1: 15th
“We had a good start and got into a good position and a good rhythm. Struggling a bit with the car but it looks like everyone’s out there struggling so we pushed on and unfortunately came out in a pack of cars. I thought I left Whincup enough room to be on the inside of me and not go too wide to the next one but then I got turned around and it was game over from there. Probably should have finished fourth and got a solid result but we finished 15th and struggled to the end. Not our day but we’ll try again tomorrow.”

Fuel conservation played a large part in the final stage of the race, with both Waters and Winterbottom conscious of consumption. Winterbottom, who ran in the top 10 for most of the race, fell to finish 14th.

Mark Winterbottom – #5 The Bottle-O PRA Ford:
Qualifying: 12th – 1m19.90s
Race 2: 14th
“Not the best day. There were a few mistakes. We made a good start and I feel like I raced alright but just a few mistakes made us fall back. We were saving fuel and it’s not a car that you can save fuel with because the brake locking is an issue so normally the way you save fuel is to brake deeper and it’s impossible with the car I had. Not a good day and not the way I wanted to start this season.”

Mark Winterbottom – #5 The Bottle-O PRA Ford:
Qualifying: 12th – 1m19.90s
Race 2: 14th
“Not the best day. There were a few mistakes. We made a good start and I feel like I raced alright but just a few mistakes made us fall back. We were saving fuel and it’s not a car that you can save fuel with because the brake locking is an issue so normally the way you save fuel is to brake deeper and it’s impossible with the car I had. Not a good day and not the way I wanted to start this season.”