Winterbottom third fastest in Sydney Practice

Frosty has a solid session

Mark Winterbottom has posted the third fastest time during practice for the Sydney Telstra 500 this afternoon.

Winterbottom ran strongly all throughout the day aboard the Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon before posting a lap time of 1min 28.5822sec late in the final of four 30-minute sessions for the day.

The 29 year-old’s time was less than half a second behind the fastest of the day around the 3.4km street circuit set by Jason Bright.

Steve Richards also showed some good bursts of speed throughout the day aboard the Orrcon Steel-backed Dunlop Super Dealer FPR Falcon before finishing 11th fastest – a position that he is confident of improving of during qualifying tomorrow.

Entering this weekend’s event Courtney holds a slender 53-point lead over Whincup at the top of the championship standings. Winterbottom is in third place a further 150 points adrift.

Qualifying, the top ten shootout and the opening 250km (74 lap) race will be contested tomorrow before the 2010 championship comes to a dramatic close on Sunday with the final qualifying session followed by a 74-lap race in the afternoon.

QUOTES FROM THE DRIVERS

Mark Winterbottom – #5 Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon
"The Orrcon Steel FPR Falcon was very good today and I'm really happy with the set-up," said Winterbottom.

"We tried a few different things throughout the practice sessions and all in all I think we're going to have a good race car.

"It's probably the most comfortable I've felt in the car for a while, which is a really good sign.

"I think we'll be there or thereabouts tomorrow and it's a nice feeling to be going to sleep tonight with the knowledge that I've got a pretty fast car.

"The weekend is going to be tough but I think we're in pretty good shape."

Steve Richards – Orrcon Steel-backed #6 Dunlop Super Dealer FPR Falcon
"The car wasn't too bad today. We put our new tyres on earlier than a lot of the other guys and the tyres bundles got nudged towards the later part of the session which opened a couple of corners up, this allowed the drivers who put their tyres on later in the session to put in a quicker time," said Richards.

"Overall, I'm relatively happy at the moment. We're comfortably a top four to eight car and a little bit of improvement tonight we should be able to move it along a bit further.

"The car feels really strong as it is, we've just got to find a fraction more speed and we'll be right."

Sydney Telstra 500
Event 14 of the 2010 V8 Supercar Championship Series
Sydney Olympic Park, NSW

RESULTS: Practice
1. #14 Jason Bright 1:28.1762
2. #33 Lee Holdsworth 1:28.2721
3. #5 Mark Winterbottom 1:28.5822
4. #888 Craig Lowndes 1:28.6010
5. #18 James Courtney 1:28.6473
6. #22 Will Davison 1:28.7247
7. #1 Jamie Whincup 1:28.7372
8. #47 Tim Slade 1:28.8157
9. #19 Jonathon Webb 1:28.8907
10. #51 Greg Murphy 1:28.9124
11. #6 Steve Richards 1:28.9333

V8 Supercar Championship Series Points Standings
After Race 24 of 26
1. James Courtney 2932
2. Jamie Whincup 2879
3. Mark Winterbottom 2729
4. Craig Lowndes 2567
5. Garth Tander 2382
6. Shane Van Gisbergen 2262
7. Lee Holdsworth 2141
8. Rick Kelly 2122
9. Paul Dumbrell 2094
10. Michael Caruso 189
17. Steven Richards 1420

ORRCON STEEL STATS – Sydney
Circuit: Sydney Olympic Park
Location: Homebush, NSW
Circuit Length: 3.4 kilometres
Format: 2 X 250km race (74 laps)
2009 Attendance: 184, 856 (three days)
2009 Saturday Pole Position: Garth Tander
2009 Saturday Race Winner: Garth Tander
2009 Sunday Pole Position: Lee Holdsworth
2009 Sunday Race Winner: James Courtney

Mark Winterbottom
Debut: Event 14 - 2009
Races: 2
Best Qualifying: 4th (Q2 2009)
Avg. Qualifying: 5.5
Best Races Result: 2nd (R1 2009)
Avg. Race Result: 2.5

Steve Richards
Debut: Event 14 - 2009
Races: 2
Best Qualifying: 23rd (Q1 - 2009)
Avg. Qualifying: 23.5
Best Race Result: 8th (R1 - 2009)
Avg. Race Result: 11.5

WEEKEND SCHEDULE
Times below are Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time (GMT + 11 hours)

Saturday 4 December 2010
10:25am – 10:45am – Qualifying
11:35pm – 12:05pm – Top Ten Shootout
2:35pm – Race One (Series Race 25) - 74 laps

Sunday 5 December 2010
10:20am – 10:50pm – Qualifying
2:35pm – Race Two (Series Race 26) - 74 laps

AUS TELEVISION SCHEDULE
Times subject to amendment – please check local guides

SEVEN NETWORK
Saturday 4 December 2010
1:00pm – 5:30pm (Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney)

Sunday 5 December 2010
1:00pm – 5:30pm (Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney)

SPEED TV (Foxtel 505) and SPEED TV HD (Foxtel 206)
Saturday 4 December 2010
10:30pm – 12:30am: (Series Race 25 Highlights)

Sunday 5 December 2010
11:00am – 1:00pm: (Series Race 25 Highlights)
9:30pm – 11:30pm: (Series Race 26 Highlights)

Monday 6 December 2010
1:30pm - 3:30pm: (Series Race 26 Highlights)