Winterbottom tops opening day

Frosty quickest

Fords Pepsi Max Crew has made a welcome return to racing at Pukekohe with Mark Winterbottom topping the time sheets at the end of Fridays four practice sessions in New Zealand.

Mark was in the lead group all day and set his best lap on used tyres immediately before his chart-topping time on green hard tyres.

Will was also in the top group on worn rubber though ended the day in 12th after making an error on his new tyre run.

Mark Winterbottom - #5 Pepsi Max FPR Ford:
Ended the day: 1st 
We kept working away at the car all day and [engineer] James (Small) and I tried to improve our weaknesses. We found good pace on used tyres and on our final run we went really quick. I didnt expect that early speed would translate too easily over to new rubber and we werent quite sure what wed end up with so it was nice to do a clean lap and feel comfortable with the car.

Will Davison - #6 Pepsi Max FPR Ford:
Ended the day: 12th 
I was disappointed with how we ended the day but we are definitely in the top few cars on old tyres which is encouraging. I put a new set on at the end but had a shocking run and that didnt really show where were at as I didnt even go close to putting a neat lap together. I am pretty sure that we can easily tune the car for qualifying so well work on it tonight and see what we end up with.

Tim Edwards FPR Team Principal: 
The whole team had a positive day today as we rolled out the cars and havent had to make a lot of changes which is great. In the early part of the day we were encouraged by our worn tyre pace and that held consistent throughout the four sessions. Mark then showed that pace translates to new rubber by topping the times so we are confident we can qualify and race well on a busy day tomorrow.