Second place at Phillip Island was hard won today according to Fabian Coulthard who says Alex Davison’s blocking almost caused him to lose his cool.
The Lockwood Racing driver, who qualified sixth for today’s two-part race, had a fairly uneventful first stint until the last corner, when leaders Craig Lowndes and Mark Winterbottom ran themselves off, gifting Coulthard a third-place start for the second half.
For the second half, however, Coulthard was stuck behind Davison for all but two laps, when he finally managed to find a way past for second.
Qualifying for tomorrow’s two 23-lap races starts at 11.10 before the first race at 13.45.
Fabian Coulthard
Lockwood Racing
“We have a drivers’ briefing and they stress that, at Lukey Heights especially, we’re not meant to drive the car extra wide but Alex did that a couple of times at least.
“I’m not very vocal when I’m in the car but even I said a few times that I was getting sick of his blocking. It was happening lap after lap and I was getting frustrated but I knew that I couldn’t afford to fire it down the inside and risk a penalty. I gave him a ruffle up here and there but it was getting pretty frustrating.
“I was a bit wary after all the antics in the first half of the race. It was pretty action-packed for saying there were no points on offer but I think we probably all benefitted from the Lowndes-Winterbottom incident at the end there.”
Sargent Security Phillip Island 360-V8 Supercars Race 32-34
PHILLIP ISLAND GRAND PRIX CIRCUIT
V8 SUPERCARS Qualifying Race 32
01 Mark Winterbottom, Pepsi Max Crew FPR Ford, 1:30.6099R
02 Craig Lowndes, Red Bull Racing Australia, +0.5050
03 Garth Tander, Holden Racing Team, +0.5392
04 Alex Davison, Jeld-wen FPR Ford, +0.5552
05 Chaz Mostert, Wilson Security Racing, +0.5893
06 Fabian Coulthard, Lockwood Racing, +0.7745
07 Shane Van Gisbergen, TEKNO Team VIP Petfoods, +0.7804
08 Jason Bright, Team BOC, +0.8023
09 David Reynolds, The Bottle-O FPR Ford, +0.9266
10 Will Davison, Pepsi Max Crew FPR Ford, +0.9710
Sargent Security Phillip Island 360-V8 Supercars Race 32-34
PHILLIP ISLAND GRAND PRIX CIRCUIT
V8 SUPERCARS Race 32
01 Garth Tander, Holden Racing Team
02 Fabian Coulthard, Lockwood Racing,
03 Alex Davison, Jeld-wen FPR Ford
04 Jamie Whincup, Red Bull Racing Australia
05 Mark Winterbottom, Pepsi Max Crew FPR Ford
06 Tim Blanchard, Wilson Security Racing
07 Shane Van Gisbergen, TEKNO Team VIP Petfoods
08 Craig Lowndes, Red Bull Racing Australia
09 Chaz Mostert, Wilson Security Racing
10 Michael Caruso, Norton Hornets
