Australian V8 Supercars open the season at Abu Dhabi

Monday, 22 February 2010 16:10

The 2010 Australian V8 Supercar Championship opened on the spectacular Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi.

The event featured two 200km races which finished under lights for the first time in the Series’ history. It was the first of two rounds in the Middle East double header season opener.

The anticipation going into the event was considerable with all of the drivers itching to get out on the impressive US$1.3 billion track, which had been the setting for the final event of the 2009 F1 season. The V8 Supercars were only the second international motorsport category to race on the circuit after Formula 1 and raced on a section of the track that their cars did not utilise. Dubbed ‘the corkscrew’ this section features a high speed left, right, left turn sequence and drops 15m in elevation across 100m of distance.

Friday qualifying consisted of a twenty minute session followed by a top ten shootout. Some of the drivers excelled during qualifying while others struggled with new setups and the new circuit. In the end though it was defending champion Jamie Whincup who defied his critics to take pole position.

The first race saw Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom, who was second on the grid, get the jump on Whincup off the line and in the lead by the first corner. The incidents began before the end of the first lap when Jim Beam Racing’s Steven Johnson hit Stone Brothers Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen who then hit the Commodore of Russell Ingall. All three drivers slipped back through the field and Johnson was later penalised for the incident.

By lap eight Whincup had overtaken Winterbottom, who faced a ten second penalty for being lined up on the grid incorrectly. Paul Morris, filling in for Greg Murphy, received a penalty for his role in an incident with Jack Daniels Racing’s Todd Kelly who also came together with Holden Racing’s Garth Tander as a result. It was not the only misfortune for the Holden Racing Team with Will Davison parking his car after the engine let go on the 30th lap of the race.

In the end it was a Team Vodafone one-two with Whincup first and Craig Lowndes second. Winterbottom fought his way back through the field after his penalty to finish third.

It was hard to keep up in the all in twenty minute Saturday qualifying session as the times continued to fall and different drivers jumped to the top of the timesheets. It was Mark Winterbottom who took pole in the dying seconds of the session on his one and only attempt to set a good time after the Ford Performance Racing Team spent most of the session fixing a brake problem in his car.

However a slow start from Winterbottom saw him slip to fifth as he was swamped by cars as the pack headed toward the first corner. His team mate Steven Richards also had a bad start with a spin within the first few corners. Whincup led the 29 V8 Supercars to the first corner and did not relinquish this position until the first pit stop. Tander was forced to retire after a locking mechanism failure on the front wheel of his Commodore on lap 30. Todd Kelly again found himself in the wars and was involved in three separate on-track incidents during the race.

Whincup regained the lead after the first round of pit stops and continued his command of the second race. Winterbottom fought back from his slow start to finish second and Shane van Gisbergen rounded out the podium after working his way up to third from his starting position of seventh. It was the first V8 Supercar Championship podium for the young Stone Brothers Racing driver, who also set the lap record at the event.

The dominance of the opening round by Team Vodafone was the best possible rebuttal to those that had doubted that the Team could handle the transition from Ford to Holden during the offseason, building not only cars for themselves but also customer cars as well. It was also a big Championship statement from Jamie Whincup who won the opening round in his previous two Championships.

The second round of the 2010 V8 Supercar Championship will be held at Bahrain International Circuit. The cars have raced here before, but will be using the full 5.41km Grand Prix circuit for the first time, having used the shorter 3.6km layout previously. http://www.girlracer.co.uk