As the V8 Supercar wagon heads back to Australian shores, Jamie Whincup will return with maximum points in his luggage after another win in Race 4 in Bahrain.
With Mark Winterbottom grabbing the lead early, Whincup worked his way back in front and from there drove away to a commanding win.
“That certainly wasn’t my perfect performance,” Whincup said. “The start was ordinary; I ran wide and had a wheel lockup which I got away with. Then I stalled coming out of the pit bay which I’m not happy about and will have to go away to have a think about.
“It’s just a massive, massive effort from our team and one we are immensely proud of. My preparation for each event is simple; I go out to do the best job I can. Some day’s your best isn’t good enough some days it is and the last two weekends our best has been better than anyone else.
“I am looking forward to the Clipsal 500 in two weeks time. We will go there having already done these last two races which I think will definitely help us prepare for what will be one of the toughest events of the year,” he continued.
Winterbottom for his part was happy to have made Whincup work for the win “I thought I’d make him (Whincup) work this time, make him earn the win,” Winterbottom said.
“He’s still got speed on us but at least he made mistakes and showed he’s human so it was good to push him all the way.
“We’ve still got work to do. It’s good in sections and bad in others and that last set (of tyres) definitely killed the speed a bit but I definitely pushed hard in the middle (stint).”
Meanwhile Shane van Gisbergen completed the carbon copy podium from the week before in Abu Dhabi, grabbing a second podium for SP Tools and Stone Brothers Racing.
“It was good to make up for yesterday, we qualified on the front row but we just didn’t have the pace to turn it into anything good in the race. We changed the car for today and we didn’t qualify well which is partly my fault but in the race the tyres held in a lot longer and we were able to pass cars and we had a great strategy that helped us jump cars in pit lane.
“We have worked pretty hard to be strong at the start of the season, we knew we would be good here but I guess I am surprised with how well the season is going for me so far.
“Mark [Winterbottom] and Jamie [Whincup] are still one step ahead of me in both car speed and driving to be honest. So I have some work to do and the guys have some work to do in order for us to take the next step up on the podium.”
Rick Kelly was again 4th for Jack Daniels Racing in front of the Valvoline Commodore of Lee Holdsworth.
The rest of the field will draw some hope from Craig Lowndes 12th place as a sign that the 888 Racing Commodore is not bullet proof. Lowndes also suffered a poor start but was not able to overcome it.
Toll Holden Racing will however be more focused on their issues on the way home, with Will Davision finishing 6th here but Garth Tander again struggled with a DNF and came home 24th. Both drivers return home outside the top 10 in the standings.
Tander was less than impressed with his first lap incident “After a reasonable qualifying session, the day didn’t turn out the way we’d hope for. The first lap I got turned around by the same car that turned me around in Abu Dhabi – it’s a bit of a common trend and guys like that, that have been in the series long enough should know better. We had changed the car for the race and it was fantastic – at the end of the first lap I was 45 seconds behind the leader and with two laps to go the gap was the same, so we had very good car speed. Then I passed Richo cleanly on the inside and he ‘over and under-ed’ me, which is cool, but then he just ran me straight off the track – his rear wheel hit my front wheel and broke the steering and that was that! It was frustrating because if you pass someone cleanly and they pass you back that’s racing, but have the courtesy of doing it cleanly. The team didn’t get the result it deserved and it’s hurt us in the championship, so we forget about that now. I’ve never won a race in Adelaide, so the focus is to go there and win both races. We’ve got two marquee events coming up in Adelaide and Hamilton so we’ll go on an event by event basis and go for the wins.”
Heading into the Clipsal 500, Jamie Whincup holds a 57 point lead over Mark Winterbottom with teammate Craig Lowndes third in the Championship a further 72 points behind.
1. Jamie Whincup, 150pts
2. Mark Winterbottom, 138pts
3. Shane Van Gisbergen, 129pts
4. Rick Kelly, 120pts
5. Lee Holdsworth, 111pts
6. Will Davison, 102pts
7. James Courtney, 96pts
8. Jason Richards, 90pts
9. Michael Caruso, 84pts
10.Paul Dumbrell, 78pts
2010 V8 Supercar Championship Series Points Standings after Race 4 of 26
1. Jamie Whincup, 600pts
2. Mark Winterbottom, 543pts
3. Craig Lowndes, 471pts
4. Shane Van Gisbergen, 447pts
5. James Courtney, 420pts
6. Rick Kelly, 392pts
7. Lee Holdsworth, 372pts
8. Steven Johnson, 296pts
9. Michael Caruso, 294pts
10. Russell Ingall, 270pts
