Skaife: Winterbottom must win this year

V8 Supercars great Mark Skaife says it's now or never for points leader Mark Winterbottom, who has been a consistent front-runner in the category but is yet to clinch his maiden Championship title.

Winterbottom has finished in the top five in the Championship for the past nine years but is yet to finish higherthan his second-place finish in 2008.

The dominant driver in V8 Supercars over that period has been Jamie Whincup, Winterbottom's bitter rival, the two having come up through karts and into the top Australian touring car category at the same time.

At the mid-point of the 2015 V8 Supercars Championship, Pepsi Max's Winterbottom is almost one round clear of second best Craig Lowndes, who is Whincup's Red Bull teammate and a three-time champion himself. Whincup sits eighth and 480 points behind.

With Winterbottom's Prodrive FG X Falcon proving a weapon this year, and teammates Chaz Mostert and David Reynolds up the front and keeping a cautious eye on him, Skaife believe it's time for Winterbottom to take the bull by the horns and prove himself worthy.

"He's an extraordinary guy - when he's on, he's very, very hard to beat," Skaife said on Inside Supercars last night.

"But if he doesn't win the Championship this year, he will never win the Championship.

"Their car has been very good, they've been very good at different places."

The Inside Supercars panel - regulars Skaife and Greg Rust, joined by Scott Pye and The Daily Telegraph's James Phelps - rated the top 10 drivers on the show last night.

Winterbottom and second-placed Lowndes were ranked highest, but it was Winterbottom's 2015 stats that impressed Skaife.

"Eight wins, only one pole, but he's been on the front row of the grid 10 times, 12 podiums and no DNFs - so that tells a big story about finishing races. And as you can see with that, it's a dominant display by Mark Winterbottom this year," Skaife said.

Teammate Chaz Mostert, who sits third on the points table, has shown extreme speed having locked in eight ARMOR ALL Pole Positions for the season. But he hasn't converted his P1 starting positions and suffered from mistakes in early rounds, which Pye believes could be playing on Winterbottom's mind.

Pye faced off with Mostert in the Dunlop Series in 2012 - a standout year also contested by Scott McLaughlin and Nick Percat. Pye noted that while he believed Mostert had the quickest car and the most poles, Mostert ultimately finished third overall that year.

"[We were] talking about Chaz, his Championship not being consistent enough, and I'm sure there's a part of Frosty thinking about that," the DJR Team Penske driver said.

"I think he [Winterbottom] has done a fantastic job. The car - you could see at the start of the season they were a little bit inconsistent but they've hit their stride now and they're just getting results week in, week out, and I can't really see that changing too much.

"They're riding a wave of confidence and it's probably going to keep going."