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V8 Supercars race 25: live commentary and blog

The V8 Championship heads to Darwin. (Source: V8 Supercars)
Roar Guru
3rd August, 2014
68

Jamie Whincup will look to make it three wins from three at Queensland Raceway in Race 25 of the V8 Supercar Championship today.

Join The Roar for a live blog of all the action from race 25 of the Championship. Coverage will start when the qualifying begins at 12:55pm AEST.

Yesterday it was all about the five time V8 Supercar champion, as he won both Race 23 and 24 at the Queensland Raceway.

In race 23 he was able to overtake his teammate, Craig Lowndes, in the final stages to win for the eighth time this season.

He then made it nine wins for the season after capitalising on an incident involving Scott McLaughlin and Michael Caruso on lap 24 of the 24th race in the championship.

Caruso – chasing Nissan’s first win of the season – made contact with McLaughlin as he attempted to overtake the Volvo driver into the final turn at the Paperclip.

He spun McLaughlin around with the Volvo driver losing plenty of positions as he tried to re-join the track.

Caruso was given a pit lane penalty which handed Whincup the lead of the race.

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Whincup took the gift and reduced the margin to Mark Winterbottom in the championship with the dominance on Saturday.

Winterbottom finished in sixth position in both races and lost 24 points in each race to Whincup in the overall standings.

This reduced the lead between the two to just 48 points.

A win by Whincup, and a seventh place finish by Winterbottom, in today’s race would hand the championship lead to the Red Bull driver.

Whincup has the pace to do it, and will be hard to beat in today’s 200-kilometre race.

Despite that though there will be plenty of other drivers who will try to stop him.

Two of them, McLaughlin and Caruso, will want to make amends for what happened in Race 24.

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McLaughlin has been the best of the rest behind the Red Bull’s and has been quick in his Volvo this weekend.

He should be high in the positions in qualifying and be a genuine threat for the win today.

Caruso will also be looking to bounce back in a Nissan that was competitive for the first time this season.

While Caruso was racing for the lead, his teammate Rick Kelly was comfortably in the top five for the Nissan team.

They are a chance to spring a surprise today with the team on the ball this weekend.

Qualifying is the key for the Japanese manufacturer.

Lowndes will also be looking to win after being beaten by his fellow Red Bull driver in both races.

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Lowndes has plenty of experience at Queensland and the longer distance will suit the three time champion.

Ford Performance Racing will also be looking to bounce back after struggling in qualifying.

Once again Mark Winterbottom was buried in the pack and had to fight his way to the top in the races.

If FPR can make it count in qualifying then Winterbottom, and histeammate Chaz Mostert, will be one’s to look out for in the race.

One final driver to look out for will be Shane Van Gisbergen who slowly moved towards the front of the field in both races.

He finished 10th in Race 23 and moved forward to fourth in Race 24. He could be a dark horse today.

It could be an action packed race today after no safety cars came out in races 23 and 24. Usually when one day is quiet in V8 Supercar land, the next is full of action.

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I wouldn’t rule it out today.

Today promises to be a close race with plenty of drivers in contention for the win. It could also be a significant day in the championship standings.

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