Frosty Excels at Top Ten Spectacle

FPR dispute the relegation from 2nd to 9th

Despite setting the second-quickest time in a nail-biting Clipsal 500 top ten shoot out today, Mark Winterbottom will start ninth for tomorrow's first V8 Supercar race of the year.

The Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon driver recovered from a testing practice session earlier in the day, when he was lapping 15th fastest, to set blistering pace in this afternoon's qualifying.

Officials penalised him for using too much curb on the entry to turn four in his one-lap shoot out, however, relegating him to ninth. At the time of writing, V8 Supercars was reviewing the decision in light of similar offences committed by competitors on the exit of the corner.

Steve Richards' Castrol FPR Falcon also made great improvements from the early practice session, just missing out on the top ten shoot out by one place.

Ford Performance Racing will take to the track for warm up at 10.55CST tomorrow (Saturday).

Mark Winterbottom Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon
""That's the first time I'd done that at turn four because I was worried about turning, but the car turned better than I thought. I'm obviously very disappointed and I'm hoping the review will come out in my favour. As far as I'm concerned, we're not ninth, we're second fastest and ninth by default.

""The car is massively improved since this morning and that's the most important thing. To go from 18th to battling for pole is a great job by everyone. It just goes to show that we're not looking for a lot when we have problems; just find a little bit here and there and it gets you back up the front.

""It's a lot easier to pass here than anywhere else; you can win from anywhere here because it's such a long race. If one guy has a long fuel stop you can get from eighth to the lead so we're not looking for a lot really.""

Steve Richards Castrol FPR Falcon
""We had to improve for qualifying after a pretty disappointing practice. We just continued to make general changes, particularly to the suspension, to improve the car. With the last change I think we might have taken a little step backwards and we came up short in the second session of qualifying.

""If you look at what the times were in that second session, 1:21.9 was on the cusp of the top ten and if you didn't improve you didn't make it unfortunately for us. The aim is still to finish in the top five though; it all comes down to what happens in the last 20 laps of the race. I don't think there's much in it.""

Tim Edwards Team Principal
""It was a bit of a topsy turvey day for us. We were significantly off the pace this morning but then we worked quite hard and got a lot of our pace back for qualifying. It was disappointing for Richo not to make it through to the top ten but it was a big improvement still.

""We got the second fastest time in the top ten shoot out and we're obviously a little bit disappointed by the penalty, which is under review. It seems it's alright to go over the curbs on the exit but not the apex and we've queried that.

""Either way, it's a fantastic result for Ford; they introduced a brand new FG race car and it got the three fastest times. FPR has worked for two years developing that car and seeing that result makes all the hard work worthwhile.""

2009 CLIPSAL 500 ADELAIDE V8 SUPERCARS QUALIFYING
1. Jamie Whincup, 888, 1:21.8123
2. Craig Lowndes, 888, +0.2545
3. Garth Tander, HRT, +0.3764
4. James Courtney, DJR, +0.5246
5. Fabian Coultard, PCR, +0.5796
6. Paul Dumbrell, Walkinshaw Racing, +0.7013
7. Will Davison, HRT, +0.9162
8. Jason Richards, BJR, +3.6065
9. Mark Winterbottom, Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon
10. Lee Holdsworth
11. Steve Richards, Castrol FPR Falcon