Mixed Results In Wild West Sydney

Wild, windy conditions caused chaos for our Prodrive Racing Australia drivers at Sydney Motorsport Park last weekend. After a fifth place finish to back up Saturday’s runner-up effort, Chaz Mostert is just six points off fourth in the Supercars standings.

Far less content were Mark Winterbottom and Cameron Waters who were both hampered by technical issues.

After a promising start on Saturday, which saw Winterbottom narrowly miss the podium in fourth, Sunday took a turn for the worse. Frosty was unable to pinpoint the exact problem that resulted in a disappointing 19th by race end.

Waters had a horrid weekend with tyre degradation on Saturday and a puncture under brakes on Sunday. He failed to finish and will be hoping to bounce back for the next round in the championship.

 

Saturday

Prodrive Racing (Australia)’s Chaz Mostert has claimed his third consecutive podium with second in a wild opening race at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Mostert qualified in the back end of the top 10 but a combination of strong late race tyre life and avoiding a race-changing incident after the safety car restart saw him claim another strong result.

He was nearly joined on the podium by Mark Winterbottom who after a front row qualifying effort came home fourth. He nursed a degrading right front tyre while leading but ultimately did not have the pace and was then delayed by traffic in pit lane during his only stop.

Cameron Waters suffered significant issues with the car due to tyre degradation.

 

Drivers' View 

Mark Winterbottom - #5 The Bottle-O PRA Ford:
Qualifying: 2nd – 1m28.53s
Race 17: 4th

“I made a good start and was pretty confident I could lead into turn one. We got away as I wanted but from lap one the right-front tyre felt like it was going to take a lot of punishment, the degradation here is quite aggressive. I was trying to really conserve it while maintain position but it started to peel off and that was it. We got held in the stop for quite a long time and it put us into a bit of a mess. On the restart there was contact and I got spat wide. There were a few negatives but we need to make the right-front more kind to us. We’ve made gains – it is a good for one lap and there is work to do on the race car. You don’t fix everything on one day but so far we are going well.”

 

Cameron Waters - #6 Monster Energy PRA Ford:
Qualifying: 12th – 1m29.10s
Race 17: 20th

“The car was not too bad in qualifying – I just didn’t quite maximise it. I ran over the timing loop at turn five which deleted by best time and left me down the field when I should’ve been around sixth on the grid. We made a few changes for the race and it was okay for the first few laps but I think I damaged or broke something as the car had no tyre life and I couldn’t turn it properly. I am thinking there is something wrong so we’ll go over the data tonight and get the engineers to look over it.”

 

Chaz Mostert - #55 Supercheap Auto PRA Ford:
Qualifying: 7th – 1m28.87s
Race 17: 2nd

“It is great to get on the podium again and spray some champagne with the team. Our race didn’t really kick off until the restart which was mayhem. We always struggle here with our safety car restarts and the overlapping today and the setting sun made it pretty tricky. There were seven or eight cars that no doubt had a bit of contact on the restart and while it was pretty crazy and it worked out okay for us. The tyre life was good late in the race but we struggled with a bit of turn today so we need to look into that and see what we can do tomorrow.”

 

Tim Edwards
Team Principal

“It was a stronger result today for both Chaz and Mark and it is great to be on the podium again today for the third-straight race. We have work to do as neither Chaz nor Mark had the tyre life for the ultimate pace, but both feel they’ve made gains. Jason and Cam had a tougher day but at least in Jason’s case he recovered from an incident out of his control. Cam had a strange day so we’ll do a thorough investigation overnight to determine what went wrong. Overall we have made gains but Sunday’s longer race will be another test.”

 

Results - Race 17

1) Fabian Coulthard – DJR Team Penske
2) Chaz Mostert – Supercheap Auto Racing
3) Jamie Whincup – Triple Eight
4) Mark Winterbottom – The Bottle-O Racing Team
5) Scott Pye – Walkinshaw Racing
14) Jason Bright – MEGA Fuels Racing
20) Cameron Waters – Monster Energy Racing

 

Sunday

It was a disappointing day for Mark Winterbottom and Cameron Waters on Sunday with both suffering technical issues to severely hamper their chances at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Chaz Mostert led the opening turn and held the lead for much of the race, before tyre life caused him to drop back to fifth.

Winterbottom started well and was in the leaders pack only for what he believes to be a technical issue. The 2015 champion dropped down the order to eventually finish in 19th place.

Waters suffered a puncture under his brakes, which caused left-rear damage. His team could not repair the damage in the allowed time.

 

Drivers' View 

Mark Winterbottom - #5 The Bottle-O PRA Ford:
Qualifying: 7th – 1m28.87s
Race 18: 19th

“We were tracking okay running in sixth. Our pace was reasonable, not leading pace, but to everyone else we were pretty good. In the last stint I went out and we broke something. The car turned nastily and from the out lap it was bad so I don’t know what we’ve done. Something has let go so it is frustrating. It was an easy p6 today and in the end we looked amateur running around at the back. It was about survival. We will find what it was but you can’t read a broken car so it has been a frustrating day.”

 

Cameron Waters - #6 Monster Energy PRA Ford:
Qualifying: 15th – 1m29.06s
Race 18: DNF

“It wasn’t the best day. We missed the set-up in qualifying and being so tight it doesn’t take too much to miss the top 10. We made the car a little bit better in the race and then after the pit stop I had to double-stack which dropped me back. We put a lot of fuel in the car and I was passing some slower cars. I passed Alex Rullo and got under him but the left-rear tyre just exploded. It spun the car because I only had three tyres and Alex had nowhere to go and drove into me and took me out. There wasn’t much I could do. The failure was weird but we’ll bounce back at Sandown.”

 

Chaz Mostert - #55 Supercheap Auto PRA Ford:
Qualifying: 2nd – 1m28.35s
Race 18: 5th

“Our car balance wasn’t quite right out of the gate and that last stint when everyone dived in early there is no way we could’ve done that. Adam and I worked hard today but the car balance hurt as we burnt front tyres and the rears a little bit. That just comes down to the stuff we need to keep working on. Overall to finish fifth and second yesterday is a great bunch of points from the weekend. To get a front row start today was great but we need to capitalise on those qualifying efforts. We are in amongst the top guys but just lacking a little bit.”

 

Tim Edwards
Team Principal

“It was a tougher day today but we still took positive from it and the weekend as a whole. Chaz qualified and raced well and the battle at the end with the two teams that we’ve been chasing since the start of the year shows we are closing it heading into the biggest races of the year. Jason drove well and converted his qualifying effort which was encouraging. Frosty and Cam endured a troubled day but both have found gains so we’re confident we’ll challenge heading into Sandown. It was also great to see Richie win on his debut weekend. He fully deserved the victory and it is great preparation for the enduros.”

Results - Race 18

1) Jamie Whincup – Triple Eight
2) Fabian Coulthard – DJR Team Penske
3) Shane van Gisbergen – Triple Eight
4) Scott McLaughlin – DJR Team Penske
5) Chaz Mostert – Supercheap Auto Racing
8) Jason Bright – MEGA Fuels Racing
19) Mark Winterbottom – The Bottle-O Racing Team
DNF) Cameron Waters – Monster Energy Racing

Championship Points

1) Scott McLaughlin – DJR Team Penske: 2058
2) Jamie Whincup – Triple Eight: 2046
3) Fabian Coulthard – DJR Team Penske: 1951
4) Shane van Gisbergen – Triple Eight: 1800
5) Chaz Mostert – Supercheap Auto Racing: 1794
6) Mark Winterbottom – The Bottle-O Racing Team: 1503
10) Cameron Waters – Monster Energy Racing: 1264
21) Jason Bright – MEGA Racing: 867

Team Championship Points

1) DJR Team Penske: 4044
2) Triple Eight: 3846
3) Prodrive Racing Australia: 2802