Lowndes completes Queensland domination

Speedcafe

Speedcafe8:12pm 5 August 2012

craiglowndes-portrait

Craig Lowndes has completed his domination of the 2012 Coates Hire Ipswich 300 by winning a processional Race 17 of the V8 Supercars Championship.

Lowndes took the lead from early front-runner Mark Winterbottom on the sixth of the 65 laps and was only headed during the pitstop cycles for the remainder.

The win is Lowndes’ fifth consecutive at Queensland Raceway and his third of the 2012 season. Additionally, TeamVodafone has now swept the last six races across the Hidden Valley, Townsville and Queensland Raceway events following a seven race streak from FPR.

Although Race 17 ran Safety Car-free for its entire distance, Winterbottom crossed the line just 2.0s behind Lowndes in second place.

Jamie Whincup was a further 14s adrift in third, while Will Davison, Fabian Coulthard, Russell Ingall, Shane van Gisbergen, Tim Slade, Michael Caruso and Steve Owen rounded out the top 10.

Lowndes and Winterbottom spent much of the last 20 laps dealing with lapped traffic. The TeamVodafone driver lapped all cars up to the 14th placed James Courtney by the chequered flag, such was his domination.

TeamVodafone and FPR ran identical strategies on its two cars, with the leading pair pitting together on Laps 9 and 38. The pursuing Whincup and Davison visited the lane one lap later on each occasion, but neither had the pace of their team-mates.

Pole-sitter Davison found himself squeezed out by fellow front-row starter Winterbottom heading into the first corner, before quickly losing places to Lowndes, Whincup and Ingall during the short hard tyre stint. The Trading Post FPR Falcon driver recovered to fourth in the first pitstop cycle, but spent the remaining laps struggling for car balance.

Jonathon Webb and Lee Holdsworth were the race’s only retirements – the pair both pitting late in the going with mechanical issues. Holdsworth struggled with a sticking throttle for much of the race, an issue that eventually resulted in a fire within the IRWIN Ford.

An early puncture ensured a poor day for the ill David Reynolds, who was the last finisher in 26th.

Rick Kelly fared just one place better after a strategic error necessitated a third pitstop for fuel in the waning laps.

Kelly’s team-mate Jacques Villeneuve saw his race come apart on the opening lap, when a touch from David Wall exiting Turn 6 sent the Pepsi Max Holden spinning across the infield.

The results see second placed Winterbottom close Whincup’s championship lead to 82 points.

The championship continues at Sydney Motorsport Park later this month.

See below for the Race 17 result

1 TeamVodafone Craig Lowndes Holden Commodore VE2 65 01:18:23.0855
2 Orrcon Steel FPR Ford Mark Winterbottom Ford Falcon FG 65 01:18:25.0614
3 TeamVodafone Jamie Whincup Holden Commodore VE2 65 01:18:39.2308
4 Trading Post FPR Ford Will Davison Ford Falcon FG 65 01:18:46.8078
5 Lockwood Racing Fabian Coulthard Holden Commodore VE2 65 01:18:55.6134
6 Supercheap Auto Racing Russell Ingall Holden Commodore VE2 65 01:18:56.4045
7 SP Tools Racing Shane Van Gisbergen Ford Falcon FG 65 01:18:57.7599
8 Lucky 7 Racing Tim Slade Ford Falcon FG 65 01:18:59.1930
9 Fujitsu Racing GRM Michael Caruso Holden Commodore VE2 65 01:19:04.5473
10 VIP Petfoods Steve Owen Ford Falcon FG 65 01:19:18.2868
11 Jim Beam Racing Steven Johnson Ford Falcon FG 65 01:19:20.3540
12 Tekno Autosports Michael Patrizi Holden Commodore VE2 65 01:19:20.7882
13 Team Hiflex Tony D’Alberto Ford Falcon FG 65 01:19:29.3162
14 Holden Racing Team James Courtney Holden Commodore VE2 65 01:19:30.8377
15 Holden Racing Team Garth Tander Holden Commodore VE2 64 01:18:28.0769
16 Jack Daniel’s Racing Todd Kelly Holden Commodore VE2 64 01:18:30.0032
17 Team BOC Jason Bright Holden Commodore VE2 64 01:18:30.9105
18 Wilson Security Racing David Wall Holden Commodore VE2 64 01:18:32.1275
19 Team Norton DJR James Moffat Ford Falcon FG 64 01:18:34.8537
20 Jim Beam Racing Dean Fiore Ford Falcon FG 64 01:18:35.3388
21 Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing Karl Reindler Holden Commodore VE2 64 01:18:37.5944
22 Team iSelect Taz Douglas Holden Commodore VE2 64 01:18:38.5686
23 Fujitsu Racing GRM Alexandre Premat Holden Commodore VE2 64 01:18:42.0785
24 Pepsi Max Crew Jaques Villeneuve Holden Commodore VE2 64 01:18:52.3026
25 Jack Daniel’s Racing Rick Kelly Holden Commodore VE2 64 01:19:02.9705
26 The Bottle-O Racing Team David Reynolds Ford Falcon FG 62 01:18:23.7838
DNF Irwin Racing Lee Holdsworth Ford Falcon FG 55 01:07:53.3336
DNF Tekno Autosports Jonathon Webb Holden Commodore VE2 54 01:05:52.8327

See below for the updated points standings

1 Jamie Whincup 2052
2 Mark Winterbottom 1970
3 Will Davison 1876
4 Craig Lowndes 1796
5 Shane Van Gisbergen 1472
6 Tim Slade 1344
7 Garth Tander 1323
8 Fabian Coulthard 1261
9 Lee Holdsworth 1217
10 David Reynolds 1017
11 James Courtney  989
12 Michael Caruso  984
13 Todd Kelly  983
14 Jason Bright  981
15 Steven Johnson  965
16 Rick Kelly  943
17 Russell Ingall  917
18 Steve Owen  877
19 Michael Patrizi  850
20 Jonathon Webb  808
21 Dean Fiore  776
22 Tony D’Alberto  737
23 Taz Douglas  593
24 Karl Reindler  584
25 David Wall  547
26 James Moffat  545
27 Alexandre Premat  532
28 Greg Murphy  315

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