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Back to October 2011 Motorsports News Archive
| 24-10-2011 at 16:00: Winterbottom Steels Whincup’s Thunder | |
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Winterbottom ran almost the perfect race with Lyons, who stepped up for Will Power following the tragic crash that claimed the life of Dan Wheldon a week ago; overtaking Whincup is the closing stages.
In front of a massive 181,000 people over the weekend GRM pair Lee Holdsworth and Frenchman Simon Pagenaud were third behind the pairing of Whincup and another Frenchman Sebastian Bourdais who won the Dan Wheldon International Driver trophy.
It was a long overdue victory for Winterbottom in an up and down season, particularly with the soft tyres that his Orccon FPR Falcon has struggled with all year.
“Richard did a great job,” Winterbottom said.
“To sit in the garage and watch him do what he does there was never a doubt. It’s probably one of the best wins for the team, we bounced back better than we every have before.
“That’s how I have to race the rest of the year, it’s about winning races. It was always going to be a good battle with Jamie but we weren’t going to let it go.”
Lyons was in Japan last weekend. When Power withdrew because of the crash and related injuries Lyon took two seconds to say yes to the drive.
“I just can’t believe how the week has turned around,” Lyons said. “It has been an opportunity with a team I have wanted to run with for so long. To come out the other side with a win and two podiums was fantastic.”
Bourdais was the best performed international driver just ahead of Lyons. It was particularly touching for Bourdais and Pagenaud who were both competing at the Las Vegas race that took Wheldon’s life.
“These are the toughest trophies to receive,” Bourdais said.
“There are a lot of memories that come back and you can’t help but put yourself in the same situation. I can relate to it very well because I have two kids pretty much the same age. It makes it that much harder.
“But in racing life goes on. We just wanted to put on the best show possible this weekend. It was a great success, a great event once again but for sure it was a little tougher than it needed to be.”
Fellow Frenchman Pagenuad echoed Bourdais.
“What happened last weekend was very tough for all of us in racing,” he said. “We all knew Dan and especially Sebastian and I racing in IndyCar. This was a good distraction for us being here. Surfers Paradise to me is the best street circuit in the world and the best show in the world.”
Whincup now holds an authoritative Championship lead over team-mate Lowndes.
“It’s unbelievable how things can turn around in a couple of weeks,” said Whincup. “This time two weeks ago I was pretty down. This week was about coming here and having fun. I’ve been very lucky with my co-drivers at the last three events as well.”
“There are still three events to go and we are in a good position.”
It was again a frustrating day for Lowndes and Andy Priaulx who had to ‘stack’ a pit stop following a safety car, losing him some 10 places from second. The safety car came right at the fuel window meaning TeamVodafone had little choice but to stop both cars.
An accident during the safety car period was simply bizarre. Italian Gianni Morbidelli had spun on the track and was directed to go against the traffic to spin the car around. Going the wrong way, he got back to the corner as Jason Bright approached.
Bright took evasive action to minimise the contact when confronted by Morbidelli going the wrong way but both cars ended up badly damaged. It appeared that Morbidelli was waved to go the wrong way by an official.
Rounding out the top ten were Rick Kelly/Jorg Bergmeister, James Courtney/Darren Turner, Steve Owen/Boris Said, Russell Ingall/Jan Magnussen, Jonathon Webb/Gil De Ferran, Todd Kelly/Richard Westbrook and Tim Slade/Helio Castroneves.
After starting from the front of the grid the #2 Toll HRT Commodore of Garth Tander/Ryan Briscoe was out of contention early with a broken axle. The pair finished 23rd and 20 laps down. Championship Standing
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Mark Winterbottom stole Jamie Whincup’s thunder at the Armor All Gold Coast 600 with his first V8 Supercar victory of the year and also the maiden win for Irishman Richard Lyons.^ Back to top ^
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