Lowndes hails “strange” strategy call

Lowndes was running fourth, right on the back of the lead pack, when TeamVortex/Triple Eight engineer Lacroix called him in for a second stop on Lap 28 to ditch 16-lap old rubber and take on a fresh set.

The #888 was the only car running near the front to make that call, the decision dropping him all the way back to 21st. But it paid off big time in the closing laps, giving Lowndes enough grip to charge his way past everyone, including his Triple Eight team-mates Shane van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup at the front.

“When [Ludo] called me in, I thought it was a bit strange,” Lowndes admitted afterwards.

“But I didn’t question him, I came in.

“He actually told me as I was going up through [Turns] 4/5. He said ‘pit this lap’. Again, I wasn’t sure, but they’ve got more eyes on the screen than I have.

“I didn’t see anyone else in pitlane all set up. We came in, we got out, and from that point on it was actually quite strange. Ludo was counting down the laps, and telling me I had a four-second lead. I’m looking at the big screen, and [Shane and Jamie] were disappearing over [Turns] 4/5 as I was coming down the main straight, so I couldn’t work out how I had a four-second lead.

“Anyway, he realised that these guys weren’t going to pit, so then he asked me to push. The car responded, and it was good enough to be able to do the lap-times at the end.

“I’m very thankful that it paid off, because it could have gone either way for us.”

Whincup close to making the same call

Whincup, who went from P6 on the grid to third, right on the tail of van Gisbergen by the finish, said he and his crew on the Red Bull side of the garage went close to making the same call.

“It was touch and go, whether to pit in the middle of the race and put the second set of tyres on,” he said. “It was a great call by TeamVortex.

“We were predicting it was going to rain, to be honest. We thought it was going to rain with five or 10 [laps] to go. Ultimately it didn’t rain.”