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V8 Supercars
V8: Lowndes Sweeps Queensland Raceway Rounds
They may well rename Queensland Raceway in honour of Craig Lowndes after his fifth successive race win at the Coates Hire Ipswich 300.
Craig Lowndes dominated the weekend at QR in his Triple 8 Holden Commodore. (Photo: Mark Horsburgh/V8 Supercars)
They may well rename Queensland Raceway in honour of Craig Lowndes after his fifth successive race win at the Coates Hire Ipswich 300.
Lowndes was untouchable all weekend in his TeamVodafone Commodore clean-sweeping the event for the second straight year. This time he beat Orccon Steel Racing’s Mark Winterbottom and team-mate Jamie Whincup in what appeared an effortless weekend.
What it does for Lowndes is keeps him in the V8 Supercar Championship hunt. He came from the second row of the grid today and despite a quick start from Winterbottom off the line his, in the end, was better when he claimed the lead in the opening laps.
“I think we pegged back about 45 or so point from Jamie but we still have a 200 or so point deficit,” Lowndes said.
“All drivers and all teams analyse where they are in the Championship after Bathurst and Gold Coast. In those three endurance races you can lose 300 points very quickly.
“As long as we stay in the 300-point margin I am going to fight it out. At the moment you gain some here and lose some there so it’s hard to close that points gap they way the points are structured.”
It was plain sailing after Lowndes passed Winterbottom in a race with no great incidents or safety cars to spice it up. Again it emphasised the gap between TeamVodafone and Ford Performance Racing that between them have won every single race in 2012, the only two to even look close today were Lockwood Racing’s Fabian Coulthard and Supercheap Auto Racing’s Russell Ingall.
Once Lowndes and Whincup put on brand new tyres it was game over, aside from Winterbottom. Late traffic left Lowndes without peer and his 12th victory at the Ipswich track and pulling back some Championship points from Whincup and Winterbottom.
“It’s been a wonderful weekend,” Lowndes said. “We knew we were coming here with confidence but you never know. We knew FPR were going to bounce back from their performance of last year and they have been strong all year. In hindsight we can now reflect on it and we are really happy.”
There was little Winterbottom or his team could do without the help of safety cars or mistakes.
“Craig was in a league of his own this weekend. He was untouchable, drove very well and didn’t put a foot wrong. What do you do? You just do your best and survive but I just couldn’t run him down, he was too good,” he said.
“He looked like he could manage his gap pretty well. I knew if could hold him out at the start it would be good but doing that for 65 laps was always going to be difficult.
“The last couple of events both of them have beaten us but we have managed to split them which for us is a big result. They are on top of their game. At their home track you probably think they are going to be strongest. It was a good result for us to split them both days. The gap to Jamie was a very good outcome for us.”
Winterbottom, though, was frustrated by lapped traffic in the closing stages which held him up several times.
“The blue flag situation was pretty average today really. I don’t think it would have changed the outcome at all. I’ve raised it before in driver briefings and they shrug it off a bit. There were guys banging doors and having their own race” he said.
“The flag marshalls were clapping us when we passed people because they though it was for the lead.”
Even Whincup applauded the race of Lowndes and Winterbottom, a situation in recent times has mostly been held by him.
“The pace of the two ahead of us was just too good. These guys were really, really hooked up. The car was maximised and just after that last stop I was never going to make the gap to these guys. I was just making sure I was guaranteed third. Unless there was a safety car it was never going to happen.”
Will Davison got swallowed in the opening laps claiming he was ‘all over the shop’ after Winterbottom jumped him on the start line. Davison seemed to settle 10 laps in but by that stage was in fifth behind leader Lowndes.
It was Lowndes to claim Davison first, then Ingall who followed. Coulthard was also looming large leading into the first pit stop cycle but was only able to maintain position as the lead four steadily pulled away.
Coulthard came home in fifth, ahead of Supercheap Ingall - the Enforcer's sixth place finish capping off his season-best weekend.
Stone Brother's Racing's Shane van Gisbergen made a late race charge past his teammate Tim Slade to finish 7th, while Michael Caruso (Fujitsu Racing) and Steve Owen rounded out the top ten.
While the championship standings remain unchanged (Whincup leads from Winterbottom, Davison and Lowndes) -the gap between the teammates has closed to 256 points.
The series now heads to Sydney Motorsport Park in two weeks' time for the last individual driver round before the Season of Endurance.
Lowndes was untouchable all weekend in his TeamVodafone Commodore clean-sweeping the event for the second straight year. This time he beat Orccon Steel Racing’s Mark Winterbottom and team-mate Jamie Whincup in what appeared an effortless weekend.
What it does for Lowndes is keeps him in the V8 Supercar Championship hunt. He came from the second row of the grid today and despite a quick start from Winterbottom off the line his, in the end, was better when he claimed the lead in the opening laps.
“I think we pegged back about 45 or so point from Jamie but we still have a 200 or so point deficit,” Lowndes said.
“All drivers and all teams analyse where they are in the Championship after Bathurst and Gold Coast. In those three endurance races you can lose 300 points very quickly.
“As long as we stay in the 300-point margin I am going to fight it out. At the moment you gain some here and lose some there so it’s hard to close that points gap they way the points are structured.”
It was plain sailing after Lowndes passed Winterbottom in a race with no great incidents or safety cars to spice it up. Again it emphasised the gap between TeamVodafone and Ford Performance Racing that between them have won every single race in 2012, the only two to even look close today were Lockwood Racing’s Fabian Coulthard and Supercheap Auto Racing’s Russell Ingall.
Once Lowndes and Whincup put on brand new tyres it was game over, aside from Winterbottom. Late traffic left Lowndes without peer and his 12th victory at the Ipswich track and pulling back some Championship points from Whincup and Winterbottom.
“It’s been a wonderful weekend,” Lowndes said. “We knew we were coming here with confidence but you never know. We knew FPR were going to bounce back from their performance of last year and they have been strong all year. In hindsight we can now reflect on it and we are really happy.”
There was little Winterbottom or his team could do without the help of safety cars or mistakes.
“Craig was in a league of his own this weekend. He was untouchable, drove very well and didn’t put a foot wrong. What do you do? You just do your best and survive but I just couldn’t run him down, he was too good,” he said.
“He looked like he could manage his gap pretty well. I knew if could hold him out at the start it would be good but doing that for 65 laps was always going to be difficult.
“The last couple of events both of them have beaten us but we have managed to split them which for us is a big result. They are on top of their game. At their home track you probably think they are going to be strongest. It was a good result for us to split them both days. The gap to Jamie was a very good outcome for us.”
Winterbottom, though, was frustrated by lapped traffic in the closing stages which held him up several times.
“The blue flag situation was pretty average today really. I don’t think it would have changed the outcome at all. I’ve raised it before in driver briefings and they shrug it off a bit. There were guys banging doors and having their own race” he said.
“The flag marshalls were clapping us when we passed people because they though it was for the lead.”
Even Whincup applauded the race of Lowndes and Winterbottom, a situation in recent times has mostly been held by him.
“The pace of the two ahead of us was just too good. These guys were really, really hooked up. The car was maximised and just after that last stop I was never going to make the gap to these guys. I was just making sure I was guaranteed third. Unless there was a safety car it was never going to happen.”
Will Davison got swallowed in the opening laps claiming he was ‘all over the shop’ after Winterbottom jumped him on the start line. Davison seemed to settle 10 laps in but by that stage was in fifth behind leader Lowndes.
It was Lowndes to claim Davison first, then Ingall who followed. Coulthard was also looming large leading into the first pit stop cycle but was only able to maintain position as the lead four steadily pulled away.
Coulthard came home in fifth, ahead of Supercheap Ingall - the Enforcer's sixth place finish capping off his season-best weekend.
Stone Brother's Racing's Shane van Gisbergen made a late race charge past his teammate Tim Slade to finish 7th, while Michael Caruso (Fujitsu Racing) and Steve Owen rounded out the top ten.
While the championship standings remain unchanged (Whincup leads from Winterbottom, Davison and Lowndes) -the gap between the teammates has closed to 256 points.
The series now heads to Sydney Motorsport Park in two weeks' time for the last individual driver round before the Season of Endurance.
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