Ford Performance Racing is on the rise after reinforcing their early season dominance at the Australian Grand Prix with Mark Winterbottom declaring more to come.
Winterbottom again helped FPR turn the tides in today’s non-Championship MSS Security V8 Supercar Challenge at the 2012 Formula 1™ Australian Grand Prix from two more Fords – those of Shane Van Gisbergen and his team-mate Will Davison.
Fresh from a dominant display in Adelaide, Winterbottom claimed both his Orccon Steel FPR Ford and Davison’s Trading Post machine could well be the pair to beat, not the twin Commodores of TeamVodafone.
The man called ‘Frosty’ won both the first qualifying race and the first of three full races today. It followed Davison’s victory in the second leg of the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide after a second to Whincup in the opener. Winterbottom was 9th on Saturday and second on Sunday to his team-mate in Adelaide.
“This was a big test for us,” Winterbottom said. “We expected to do well in Adelaide and the cars were good. Will was one of the benchmarks. Last year here though I think we qualified tenth and ran around about 15th most of the weekend.
“We needed to do well here to prove how far we had come from last year when we had terrible rear tyre life which was our biggest issue all year. Now we have done that and it will reflect in all the tracks we struggled at last year.
“It really is a big deal for us. What we have done will fix all of those other issues.”
Davison was in the same boat. He ended up sapped of confidence in his final year with the Holden Racing Team and joined FPR last year. Then he had a horrible year of highs and the lowest of lows.
“It’s a great place to be right now,” Davison said. “Through last year it was always a good team but the weaknesses have been getting better and we are making fewer mistakes. We have just got to keep up that effectiveness, organization and hard work.”
Having a Championship lead is a competitive and mental advantage for Winterbottom who has too many times seen Whincup blast out of the blocks in the first four or five events.
“It’s crucial. You can’t give guys 200-300 point leads which is what we have done for the past two or three years,” he said.
“Whincup, Lowndes, Shane … guys like that don’t make mistakes. Give them a lead and you won’t get it back. It’s hard enough to make 100 points let alone 300.”
It was a rare glitch from Whincup that took the pressure off the Ford trio when a below par pit stop saw him shuffled back down the pack. He finished fifth having led comfortably in the opening laps.
“I got off to a great start but it all ended when I locked up and almost took all of my mechanics out in the pit lane. Tomorrow’s another day,” Whincup said.
Winterbottom won the earlier qualifying race, snatching the lead from Van Gisbergen on the opening lap and holding on to claim victory from Whincup.
He was not so lucky in the second race when off the line he slid badly, a common problem at Albert Park when the tyres contact the pole position starting ‘box’.
With Winterbottom sliding sideway Whincup got a super clean start to the first corner. His far superior corner exit speed gave him a five-car lead within seconds as the field behind him battled for position.
Almost half the field came in for a pit stop at lap two of the race, including Whincup when his problem struck.
The unique 'drop zone' format in the first qualifying race created plenty of interest, with three cars per lap dropped out of the race between laps three and eight.
A lap two crash eliminated both Jason Bright and Michael Patrizi, with the Team BOC and Tekno crews left with a pile of work.
Both teams did an extraordinary job to return the Team BOC Commodore and the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Holden to the grid just three hours later for the second race of the day.
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