Ipswich Driver View

DRIVERS’ VIEW
Mark Winterbottom – #5 The Bottle-O PRA Ford:
“I am looking forward to Queensland. It has been good to us in the past and it is nice to go into a round off the back of two solid results. It builds confidence. We’ve had quite a few wins at Ipswich in recent times and if we can continue our previous form and the speed we showed in Townsville there is no reason we can’t claim more podiums which is the goal.” 

DRIVERS’ VIEW
Mark Winterbottom – #5 The Bottle-O PRA Ford:
Practice 1: 26th – 1m10.35s
Practice 2: 6th – 1m09.27s
“The first session was poor. I haven’t driven a car that hard to drive for a long time. I was a bit unsure of where we were going as we tried a lot of things in the first session and made no inroads. It was a really good job by my engineer Brendan to turn it around. We’ve made it a car that I think we can compete with which is good. Things were a lot better. My final run was hampered by Alex Rullo and without that I would’ve been closer to a 1m9.0s lap. I am proud of the crew for turning it from a back row car to a pretty much front of the field car.” 

DRIVERS’ VIEW
Mark Winterbottom – #5 The Bottle-O PRA Ford:
Qualifying: 5th – 1m08.91s
Race 15: 9th
“It was not the best race car, we struggled a bit. Strategically I needed to not come out behind Rick (Kelly) but the way the pit stops turned out we came out right behind Rick so it was a tough race from there. We struggled from there. To get past cars was hard and there is a bit of work to do. We just didn’t get the strategy to play out the way we wanted it to today. We survived but we’ll get another chance tomorrow.” 

DRIVERS’ VIEW
Mark Winterbottom – #5 The Bottle-O PRA Ford:
Qualifying: 6th – 1m08.91s
Race 16: 10th
“It was just a tough day really. I snagged a quick lap in qualifying through sheer determination but in the race our lack of pace was highlighted. The safety car cost us as at the end as it brought the late stoppers on our tail. We weren’t fast enough but with Chaz’s pace we can surely learn something. It was great for the team to have the win and we’ll look at what Chaz did as a possible direction for development. It was a frustrating weekend to not be quick enough but we know the pace is there.