Penalties hamper Pepsi cars

24 October 2015

The Pepsi Max Crew has endure a tough day at the office in race one at the Castrol Gold Goast 600, with the all of the pain coming from within pit lane. 

Mark Winterbottom and Steve Owen's third place qualifying position and strong start in fourth prior to pitting were hampered by an unsafe release from pit lane following their driver change. 

After colliding with Tander upon exit, damage to the car and repairs meant the pair re-joined 13 laps down, but still took home 33 points from the race. 

In his first qualifying session in the main series Cameron Waters set quick times early before falling back to 19th from which Russell Ingall started the race. 

Ingall was able to make up spots early but the pair also experienced a setback in the driver change pit stop after a pit lane penalty for a spinning wheel, putting them a lap behind to finish 17th.

Frosty has maintained his championship points lead, remaining 306 points ahead of Lowndes.

DRIVERS’ VIEW
#5 Pepsi Max PRA Ford – Mark Winterbottom/Steve Owen: 
Qualifying: 6th 
Top-ten Shootout: 3rd 
Race 26: 24th 
Mark Winterbottom
"It was a bit of a bad day really. We qualified well. The car in the race was actually surprisingly really good. I thought we had a good car and I was on re-used tyres from Steve Owen and they were 90 laps old and I still felt confident at the end so that sort of kicked in the frustration a little bit knowing I had something good but it's a motorsport thing. There's a lot of technology and there's also the human element and today we got the human element wrong and everything else actually quite right. I'm a bit disappointed but I'll go to bed, come back tomorrow, put new tyres on, try and put it up the front and redeem after a bad day which is all we can concentrate on."

Steve Owen
"Obviously we didn't get the result we wanted. I was pretty happy to hand over in p4 in front of all the threats for the Pirtek Cup and also the championship so from my perspective it was a pretty conservative approach but a good one. We had a drama in the pits but if that's our worst result for the next three or four rounds then so be it. We've still got a good lead in the championship and we're still neck-and-neck in the Pirtek Cup so even though it was a tough day not all is lost."

#6 Pepsi Max PRA Ford – Cameron Waters/Russell Ingall: 
Qualifying: 19th 
Race 26: 17th 
Cameron Waters
"I learnt a hell of a lot today. In qualifying we were 18th or 19th and I just learnt how to get the most out of the car and then in the race I actually thought I had okay pace and could have been in the top 10 quite easily but then we got dropped back after the drive through after the car got stuck in gear in the driver change which put us back a fair way. I learnt quite a lot about the car, the track and how to drive it and I think we'll come out tomorrow quite a bit stronger."

Russell Ingall 
"It's a real shame. We were racing the DJR Penske car there and that ended up finishing eighth so I think we had it on that. We could have been eighth or ninth today which would have been fantastic if we finished in the top 10 the way we started. I got a really good start and got a few positions early and it was just a shame in the pit stop. It looks like I might have bumped the gear stick on the way out getting out of the car and it's knocked it back into gear. It's just one of those things I suppose. I usually don't make mistakes on that side of it and it was just a bit of a freak thing. From there it was just a matter of Cam jumping in and doing laps. He seemed pretty comfortable in the car. The car is pretty wounded because we got a few hits along the way but when you start down the field like that that's what happens. The good thing about it is that Cam seems a lot more comfortable in the car which means going into Sunday's qualifying he's going to do a lot better job and get the thing up there. If we start somewhere near the ten I think we might surprise a few people."

Tim Edwards – Team Principal: 
"A bit of an up and down day today. Dave and Dean's result showed just how well they work together. They had a great drive after starting eighth and to hold off Lowndes was great. We got Frosty's pit stop release wrong and paid the price for it. We're still in a good position for the championship. Cam and Russell's pit stop penalty was disappointing as well but they're the rules. The positives to take out of today were that the cars were quick, we got away with minimal damage and we're looking forward to tomorrow and getting on with it."

RACE 26
1) Shane van Gisbergen/ Jonathon Webb – Tekno
2) David Reynolds/Dean Canto – The Bottle-O Racing Team 
3) Craig Lowndes/Steven Richards – Triple Eight
4) Garth Tander/Warren Luff – HRT 
5) James Courtney/Jack Perkins – HRT
17) Cameron Waters/Russell Ingall – Prodrive Racing
24)  Mark Winterbottom/Steve Owen – Prodrive Racing

DRIVER CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS 
1) Mark Winterbottom – Prodrive Racing: 2527
2) Craig Lowndes – Triple Eight: 2221
3) David Reynolds – The Bottle-O Racing Team: 2197
4) Fabian Coulthard – Brad Jones Racing: 2030
5) Chaz Mostert – Prodrive Racing: 2017

TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
1) Pepsi Max Crew: 4598
2) HRT: 3968
3) Triple Eight: 3952

- See more at: http://www.prodriveracing.com.au/news/2015/10/24/penalties-hurt-pepsi-max-crew#sthash.0ktrO115.dpuf