Breaking news
Supercars Adelaide
Winterbottom on Adelaide penalty: 'I'm p***ed off'
Mark Winterbottom has slammed Supercars officials for the penalty that took him out of contention for a top four spot during today's second leg of the Adelaide 500.
Andrew van Leeuwen
Edited: Mar 4, 2018, 1:25 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The Tickford Racing driver was running fourth following the second and final round of stops, but was dumped down the order after being pinged for triggering the kerb sensors on Lap 57 and handed a drive-through penalty.
Tickford boss Tim Edwards called the decision "absolute bullshit" on live TV just moments after it was handed down, while Winterbottom issued a rant of his own after the race.
His gripe is centred around a sense he was losing speed compared to other drivers through that part of the lap, but that the other cars weren't triggering the sensor as they were bouncing over the kerb high enough to avoid the sensors.
"I'm pretty pissed off. I wasn't making purple sectors there," he said.
"[After] the first warning I lost three tenths a lap, and all the guys ahead of me are doing purple sectors going straight across inside it
"I think that when you're now launching off it you're not getting the height because you're hitting it slower, and instead of launching over it you're kind of lower to the sensor and I think that's made it more sensitive.
"I would like to see the footage to say you're four wheels over.
"Even in the Shootout I lost a lot of time there because Whincup and van Giz are two tenths quicker because they just go straight over; two wheels off the track but high in the air. Whereas I had two wheels on the track and low, and it triggers them."
Winterbottom added that a judge of fact might help remove any doubt to kerb use decisions.
"You need to stand there and just watch," he said.
"A guy's got four wheels off and he's not triggering it, and a guys got two wheels on the track and it's triggering it.
"I don't know... I don't think that's fair, you know? But at the end of the day you get the penalty and nothing's going to change.
"I don't know how you fix it.
"It's just the sensitivity of it. I don't know... it happens ... it's always a drama, someone's on the rough end of it.
"[The stewards] don't care, it doesn't affect their day, it affects my day. They'll go home and be happy and I'll go home pissed off."
Winterbottom was ultimately classified 13th after serving the penalty.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Adelaide 500: Van Gisbergen wins as title rivals struggle
Next article Walkinshaw drivers laugh off on-track tussle
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Andrew van Leeuwen
Toby Price explains 'unfortunate' Mitsubishi split
Dakar
Dakar
Dakar
Toby Price explains 'unfortunate' Mitsubishi split
Supercars parity review begins
Supercars
Supercars
Supercars parity review begins
SRO set for bigger Australian GT presence
GT World Challenge Australia
GT World Challenge Australia
SRO set for bigger Australian GT presence
More from
Mark Winterbottom
Team 18 confirms Winterbottom/de Pasquale 2025 Supercars swap
Supercars
Supercars
Team 18 confirms Winterbottom/de Pasquale 2025 Supercars swap
Supercars Indigenous livery roll-out continues
Supercars
Supercars
Hidden Valley
Supercars Indigenous livery roll-out continues
Winterbottom focussed on titles, not retirement
Supercars
Supercars
Winterbottom focussed on titles, not retirement
Latest news
Spire, Chris Gabehart reject Joe Gibbs Racing premise on deleted texts
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
2 h
Spire, Chris Gabehart reject Joe Gibbs Racing premise on deleted texts
Ricky Stenhouse explains his side of Michael McDowell conflict
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
6 h
Ricky Stenhouse explains his side of Michael McDowell conflict
Barnes: Why IndyCar’s updated licensing system fails its own integrity test
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 7 h
Barnes: Why IndyCar’s updated licensing system fails its own integrity test
Why NASCAR is not penalizing Stenhouse, McDowell for post-race theatrics
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
8 h
Why NASCAR is not penalizing Stenhouse, McDowell for post-race theatrics
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe