Supercars
Bahrain: TeamVodafone Thursday notes
Whincup sets second quickest time in Bahrain practice TeamVodafone drivers Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes have come out firing in today's opening practice session at the Bahrain International Circuit with both drivers figuring prominently in the ...
Edited: Nov 3, 2007, 2:34 AM
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Whincup sets second quickest time in Bahrain practice
TeamVodafone drivers Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes have come out firing in today's opening practice session at the Bahrain International Circuit with both drivers figuring prominently in the top six.
After only two laps on track, Whincup recorded the third quickest time while teammate Craig Lowndes was sixth fastest, both drivers retaining their positions until the closing laps of the second sector.
The TeamVodafone duo switched to their second set of green tyres with only ten minutes go and Championship leader, Whincup leapt straight to the top of the time sheets.
On the same lap Lowndes jumped to third but both were knocked back a position when fellow Ford driver Mark Winterbottom pipped Whincup by a mere four one thousandths of a second, with only minutes left on the clock.
Despite a few nervous off track moments Whincup signaled his intentions from the onset, the championship leader very happy with Falcon's speed ahead of qualifying.
"We couldn't have a bigger change from Indy to Bahrain as far as the circuit goes," Whincup acknowledged.
"I am very happy with the car it is good to see we are starting to find some qualifying speed."
"With tyre degradation due to the coarse surface it is an engineers nightmare to adjust the car from qualifying to a race setup but I am confident Mark (Dutton) will do a good job."
Teammate Craig Lowndes also ran wide a couple of time as he pushed his TeamVodafone Falcon on the slippery track.
"The track temperature is a lot hotter than last year the cars are moving around a lot more on track," said Lowndes.
"This track is completely different to any other in terms of tyre gain, at most circuits you can chip away and make gains but here you can only get a couple of timed laps out of the tryes."
"We spent most of the session just playing with the setup as I lacked a little all over grip but it is a much better start than last year," Lowndes added.
Tomorrows on track action will see the V8 Supercars qualify at 11.00am (6.00pm AEST) with Race 1 to get underway at 3.00pm (10.00pm AEST). Saturday's two V8 Supercar races will commence at 11.00am (6.00pm AEST) and 3.35pm (10.35pm AEST).
Channel 7's live telecast of the Desert 400 will commence at 11.30pm on Friday 2nd November and 10.30pm on Saturday 3rd November with highlights of all three races to be replayed from 2.00pm on Sunday 4th November (check your local guides for details)
-credit: teamvodafone/fluidpr.com.au
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