Points saved in super sprint battle

21 November 2015

Frosty finishes 7th and 4th.

The Pepsi Max Crew has finished the first two races of the Phillip Island SuperSprint cleanly in what was an eventful day. 

It began with an engine change for Mark Winterbottom following undiagnosed engine issues in the day's first qualifying session. 

Despite the issues, Winterbottom managed to qualify fifth and fourth for each of the afternoons races.

In what was a bumpy race 31, the championship leader managed to finish relatively unscathed in seventh, despite being run wide by Courtney at turn four. 

Race 32 was relatively calm in comparison, with Frosty finishing in the positions from which they started. 

Cam Waters escaped the lap-one carnage on entry to turn two in the first race, managing to push his way up to ninth. 

A top ten finish is a fantastic effort for the young-gun as he continues to acclimatise to the FG X. The second race saw Waters caught in the pack, falling from 13th to 15th. 

Winterbottom now sits 209 points ahead of Craig Lowndes in the championship race.

DRIVERS’ VIEW
#5 Pepsi Max PRA Ford – Mark Winterbottom: 
Qualifying: 
5th 
Race 31: 7th 
Qualifying: 4th 
Race 32: 4th 
"We had a few battles today. Overall we ended up getting good points again. We had some engine issues and a couple of other things so it wasn't the cleanest day but the guys did an amazing job to change an engine in 36 minutes which I think is a new record for the team so I really appreciate the guys getting the car back to where it was but we need to tune the race car up a little bit. If we can get a good race car, then we'll qualify well and be able to maintain a good position so we've got a bit of work to do overnight but it wasn't a bad day."

#6 Pepsi Max PRA Ford – Cameron Waters: 
Qualifying:
 11th 
Race 31: 9th 
Qualifying: 13th 
Race 32: 15th 
"It was an okay day. It was good because it was dry for a change. Qualifying was okay. We were 11th and 13th and I made little gains for myself in the car. Race one was cool. It was my first top ten finish, I finished ninth and the car was actually reasonably good. It's so hard to pass around here. In the second race today it was the same thing, you're just behind cars and it's so hard to pass. I probably had pace over the four cars in front of me but once you get where you are it's hard to pass so you just have to sit there."

Tim Edwards – Team Principal: 
"Today was pretty crazy really. We decided to change the engine just as a precaution. It wasn't worth going through everything. The crew did a fantastic job to get it changed out in 36 minutes or close to it. Obviously we would have liked better results in the first race but in the scheme of things seventh isn't a bad finish for Frosty. It's still very disappointing to see Dave get turned around. But there's always tomorrow and we'll fix up a few things overnight and try and take home the 150 points tomorrow."

RACE 31
1) Craig Lowndes – Triple Eight
2) Jamie Whincup – Triple Eight
3) Scott McLaughlin – GRM
4) Shane van Gisbergen - Tekno 
5) James Moffatt – Nissan Motorsport
7) Mark Winterbottom – Prodrive Racing 
9) Cameron Waters – Prodrive Racing

RACE 32
1) Jamie Whincup – Triple Eight
2) Scott McLaughlin – GRM
3) Craig Lowndes – Triple Eight 
4) Mark Winterbottom – Prodrive Racing 
5) David Reynolds – The Bottle-O Racing Team
15) Cameron Waters – Prodrive Racing

DRIVER CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS 
1) Mark Winterbottom – Prodrive Racing: 2887

2) Craig Lowndes – Triple Eight: 2678
3) David Reynolds – The Bottle-O Racing Team: 2610
4) Garth Tander –HRT: 2375
5) Shane Van Gisbergen – Tekno: 2371
32) Cam Waters – Prodrive Racing: 550

TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
1) Pepsi Max Crew: 5128

2) Triple Eight: 4943
3) HRT: 4727

- See more at: http://www.prodriveracing.com.au/news/2015/11/21/points-saved-in-supersprint-battle#sthash.r1nO2IA6.dpuf

Back to news