Hard-fought Perth win a V8s highlight for Winterbottom

Winterbottom struggled during Saturday’s 120-kilometre race, a trip through the sand at Turn 7 just one of his troubles as the battled his way to 22nd position.

But he bounced back in perfect fashion on Sunday, turning a risky two-stop strategy into a thrilling victory from the 200-kilometre thanks to a measured drive.

Having said Saturday was one of the “worst days I’ve had in a while”, Winterbottom hailed his Sunday triumph as a genuine career highlight.

“It’s definitely up there,” he said.

“You hate making mistakes, I get real dirty on myself for making mistakes. I went home pretty disappointed [on Saturday].

“It’s not massive, you hit a puddle or whatever, but the consequence was huge.

“To do that [on Sunday], when you have to drive to numbers, you have to use your mind a lot. It’s very hard to get the most out of the tyre for the whole stint, and not get drawn into battles.

“So it’s definitely up there for wins, just because how strategic I had to drive the car. And it’s been, what, seven months [since the last win]. So that also makes it special as well.”

Renewed confidence

While Winterbottom says his confidence was never rocked during his winless streak, which stretched back to last September’s Sandown 500, he said having won the Barbagallo race on soft tyre life – a weakness for Prodrive so far this season – gives him fresh belief he can regularly fight at the top again.

“The confidence wasn’t down. You just want to make sure the car’s quick,” he said.

“I don’t mind finishing second and thirds, but at Phillip Island when a car drives away from you, you hope that you can get on top of it.

“Results don’t bother me, but a fast car, with good tyre life, that’s what gets to you a little bit more.

“To know that we’ve had bad tyre life, and then win [on Sunday] purely because of our tyre life, that’s a big win for us. That gives me confidence now going to other tracks, knowing that we can back ourselves and get the tyre life.

“You never doubt the team, because we always seem to get good results throughout the year at some stage, but just focussing on areas, when you fix something that’s a big boost for confidence.”

Questionable decision

Winterbottom also admitted that he tried to talk engineer Jason Gray out of gambling on the two-stop strategy, which meant he had to do a monster 30-lap stint on a single set of rubber at the end of Sunday’s race.

“I questioned it. I didn’t want to do it, to be honest,” he said.

“Saturday night I texted him, Sunday morning I chatted to him in the truck. All these blokes have got tyres and everything, and I saw Craig [Lowndes] start on not a new set, so I knew his strategy straight up.

“But when he led the race, that was probably my saviour, because his pace at the start was not that quick, and he kept all those three-stopper guys to my lap-times.

“When they all peeled in, I was on their bumper. That won the race for me.

“You question it, but the engineers are far more qualified than what we are. They have degrees to prove it.”