Mark Winterbottom takes last gasp victory in race two
Mark Winterbottom made it two wins from two races in the V8 Supercars' non-championship Melbourne outing after a last-lap pass on Shane van Gisbergen in race two
Both Ford Performance Racing cars made it onto the podium at the Australian Grand Prix support event, with Winterbottom's team-mate Will Davison third behind Stone Brothers Ford man van Gisbergen who led most of the race on a different strategy.
For this 12-lap event, the field had to make a compulsory pitstop and use both hard and soft tyres.
FPR started Winterbottom on hards and Davison on softs, but as they took each other wide while battling into Turn 3 on the opening lap, it was reigning series champion Jamie Whincup (Triple Eight Holden) who established a substantial lead over van Gisbergen.
Whincup, van Gisbergen, Winterbottom and most of the other drivers on hard tyres pitted for softs at the end of the opening lap, with Whincup losing several seconds with a slow stop, and van Gisbergen emerging from the pits first.
Davison stayed out on his softs and led from Craig Lowndes, who was running the same strategy but had to retire his Triple Eight car with a mechanical problem just after half-distance.
Despite waiting until the penultimate lap to pit, Davison could not build a sufficient lead over the early-stoppers, so rejoined third behind van Gisbergen and Winterbottom. The Stone Brothers driver had edged away from Winterbottom mid-race, but the qualifying race winner fought back and eventually grabbed the lead into Turn 6 on the very last lap.
Behind Davison, Garth Tander took fourth for Holden Racing Team, with Whincup fifth after his pit delay.
Results - 12 laps:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap
1. Mark Winterbottom FPR Ford 24m34.7788s
2. Shane van Gisbergen Stone Brothers Ford + 0.5912s
3. Will Davison FPR Ford + 3.1199s
4. Garth Tander HRT Holden + 5.5735s
5. Jamie Whincup Triple 8 Holden + 8.9168s
6. Lee Holdsworth Stone Brothers Ford + 12.8678s
7. Rick Kelly Kelly Holden + 13.8449s
8. David Reynolds Rod Nash/FPR Ford + 19.2170s
9. Todd Kelly Kelly Holden + 19.8183s
10. James Courtney HRT Holden + 26.9388s
11. Fabian Coulthard Brad Jones Holden + 31.3898s
12. Greg Murphy Kelly Holden + 31.5027s
13. Michael Caruso Garry Rogers Holden + 34.8967s
14. Steven Johnson Dick Johnson Ford + 37.0223s
15. Tony D'Alberto D'Alberto Ford + 38.2485s
16. Taz Douglas Dumbrell Holden + 38.3919s
17. Michael Patrizi Tekno Holden + 38.8868s
18. Karl Reindler Kelly Holden + 39.2541s
19. David Wall Britek/BJR Holden + 40.9521s
20. Steve Owen Dick Johnson Ford + 41.3603s
21. Dean Fiore Triple F Ford + 45.0427s
22. Alexandre Premat Garry Rogers Holden + 46.3419s
23. Russell Ingall Walkinshaw Holden + 53.3949s
24. Jason Bright Brad Jones Holden + 1m09.2237s
25. Tim Slade Rosenberg/SBR Ford + 1m16.4692s
Did not finish:
James Moffat Dick Johnson Ford 9 laps
Craig Lowndes Triple 8 Holden 6 laps
Jonathon Webb Tekno Holden DSQ
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