CRAIG LOWNDES - VF HOLDEN COMMODORE / Car #888

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Practice Three: Third (Fastest Lap – 1:03.5674)

Qualifying Race 1: Third (Fastest Lap – 0:59.9643)

Race 1: FIRST

CRAIG LOWNDES

"Qualifying was interesting because we knew the rain was coming. Luckily we got that first lap in, which wasn't perfect, but it was good enough to give us third on the grid. With the rain coming down we didn't opt to do any more of the qualifying session. In the race itself, we struggled a bit on the wet tyre and didn't quite have the pace we'd have liked and we fell back a little bit. We were one of the first to change onto the slick tyre and from then on we had a great battle. We were running fourth when Ludo (Lacroix, Race Engineer) decided to do a second pit stop, which I thought was a bit strange at the time, but ultimately it worked out to be the best strategy. We had great tyre life and great pace towards the end of the race, which made us able to pick the other cars off fairly easily. It's a credit to the team and a credit to Ludo that we came out on top with that strategy. It's terrific to get TeamVortex's first win and Triple Eight's first podium lockout in a championship race. Hopefully tomorrow we can have a good, strong finish to the weekend."