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V8 Supercars Championship: Queensland Raceway live blog

1st August, 2015
Coverage: Qualifying, Race 18, Race 19
Start: 11:30am (AEST)
Supercars retro round is about more than just liveries. (Photo: POLESTAR Volvo)
Roar Guru
1st August, 2015
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Race Result: Mark Winterbottom has continued his march towards a maiden V8 Supercars Championship with a win in Race 18 and 19 at Queensland Raceway.

In a sign of strength from the Prodrive racer, he would lead for all 40 laps of the two races on Saturday, to increase his championship lead over the rest of the field.

He has now won four races in a row and eight overall in the season.

The day actually didn’t start well for Winterbottom, who was only 13th in Practice 3 during the morning.

By the end of the qualifying sessions, for Race 18 and 19, this changed though as Prodrive dominated again.

Chaz Mostert would take pole position for Race 18 with a blistering lap that would be over two tenths quicker than the next fastest car.

That car would be Winterbottom, who qualified in second.

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Andre Heimgartner, in his Super Black Racing Ford, would round out the top three with a scintillating session.

It was his best qualifying performance of his short career.

For Race 19 Craig Lowndes would respond to take pole on the soft tyre.

Winterbottom would again finish second with Mostert in third.

At the start of Race 18, the championship leader would get a brilliant start.

Starting around the outside, Winterbottom would start well, and lead into turn 1.

Scott McLaughlin, who started from 4th, would also move to second by the first turn and have a battle with Mostert for position.

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That battle, which lasted for a lap, would allow Winterbottom to streak away from the field.

McLaughlin would be able to hold on as Mostert came under pressure from Van Gisbergen for position.

After making contact out of the final corner, on lap 2, the Kiwi would move past Mostert and be in third.

They would battle for the next 15 laps, and make plenty of contact, as they battled for the final position on the podium.

On lap 19, this changed, as contact between the two allowed Lowndes to move through from 5th to 3rd.

He would pull off a Steven Bradbury to land the podium finish.

Up front though it would be Mark Winterbottom’s race, as he won his 3rd in a row in the championship.

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Scott McLaughlin would finish 2nd and get his first podium for the season.

In Race 19 Craig Lowndes would start well and lead in the first corner from pole position.

This would change by turn 2 with Winterbottom overtaking the Red Bull driver.

A safety car would then come out with Shane Van Gisbergen stranded on the start line after failing to move at the start of the race.

That would end his afternoon and bunch the field up on lap 2.

One lap later, the race would restart, with Lowndes applying pressure to Winterbottom for the lead.

The Red Bull driver would try to overtake Winterbottom, but not be able to make the vital move.

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With two laps to go, Lowndes would move away, as Winterbottom held on to complete the double at Queensland Raceway.

Chaz Mostert would round out the podium.

Winterbottom now leads the championship by 265 points heading into tomorrow’s 200km race.

Can he make it a clean sweep? Find out tomorrow as the Roar blogs the final day of racing.

 

Race Preview: Prodrive Racing will look to continue their dominance of the V8 Supercar Championship as the field head to Queensland Raceway for Races 18 and 19. Join The Roar for a live blog of qualifying and race 18 and 19 of the series from 11:30am AEST.

If practice yesterday is anything to go by, they could well be on their way to another strong weekend.

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In a shortened schedule to normal, because of a co-driver session, the main drivers got just two sessions yesterday.

Leading the charge, once again, was Prodrive Racing with Chaz Mostert setting the fastest time of the day in the final session.

He would be joined by Tim Slade and Scott McLaughlin, who finished second and third in Practice 2.

Earlier in the day, in the first practice session, McLaughlin continued his resurgence with the top time in the first session for the main drivers.

In the co-driver session Dean Fiore – Michael Caruso’s partner – topped the session.

Despite Mostert being at the top, the same can’t be said for Mark Winterbottom. He finished 16th and was almost a second away from his team-mate.

With drivers using different tyres though it can be hard to gauge exactly where they stand.

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Fellow championship contenders, Jamie Whincup (11th), Craig Lowndes (10th), Fabian Coulthard (17th), and Garth Tander (21st), also struggled.

This morning will see one more practice session before teams go straight into qualifying for Race 18 and 19 of the championship.

Like Darwin, which saw teams being given an extra set of soft tyres, Queensland Raceway will also have that happen.

Race 18 will be on hard tyres with Race 19 on soft tyres.

Qualifying will also be done that way with the field on hards, and then on softs, to determine the grid for Race 18 and 19.

This will hopefully provide better racing for the 60-kilometre format with both races at that duration today.

Heading into today’s racing Winterbottom leads the championship by 248 points over Lowndes. Red Bull Racing, who have won eight of the last 11 races here, will be hoping to turn their season around by dominating at the Paperclip today.

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Winterbottom, on the other hand, will be hoping to extend the lead at Queensland Raceway and keep a big buffer as we head into the endurance races.

The Holden Racing Team, who won last year’s 200km race at Ipswich with James Courtney, will also be looking for a big weekend.

Courtney and Tander, who are sixth and seventh in the standings, will be aiming to reduce the gap as well.

With four of the five manufacturers claiming a pole position, or a win, at the venue since 2013 it promises to be a close day of racing.

Predicting what will happen is tough but I expect Holden to bounce back today with Red Bull or the Holden Racing Team winning a race.

You won’t miss a thing as The Roar blogs the V8 Supercar Championship.

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