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Winterbottom 'happy' with Sunday Darwin recovery

21 Jun 2021
Winterbottom scored finishes of fifth and seventh on Sunday
2 mins by James Pavey
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Sunday’s Darwin action marked a turnaround in luck for Mark Winterbottom following a disappointing Saturday.

After qualifying fourth, Winterbottom raced to fifth in Race 13, before rising from eighth to seventh in Race 14.

It came after the 2015 champion’s front row start went begging in the dramatic start to Race 12 on Saturday.

"It was definitely a better Sunday than Saturday was," said Winterbottom, who retained sixth in the standings.

"Yesterday was tough, but we bounced back with some reasonable results.

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"Two top 10s in qualifying, a fifth and seventh in the races and a clean car to finish the weekend.

"We leave Darwin happy with the day and now we get to go home back to Victoria which is great news for the team."

Winterbottom got off to a strong start from the second row in the morning race, heading three wide into Turn 1 alongside both Red Bull Holdens.

The 38-time race winner made his compulsory pit stop on lap 12 and dropped a spot in the pit stop cycle to Chaz Mostert.

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However, he threatened to pass Mostert in the end before settling for fifth.

In Race 14, Winterbottom stopped early and held position.

It was a tougher weekend for teammate Scott Pye; in Race 13, he charged to 13th after rejoining 20th.

A jammed wheel nut during his stop in Race 14 saw him rejoin back in 21st, before he recovered to finish in 16th position.

"It was a really tough weekend, we had a fast car but didn’t manage to get a result with it,” said Pye, who dropped two spots in the standings.

"I’m gutted about this weekend, the team worked their backsides off and we have nothing for it, our only three sessions out of the top ten were the three races, but that’s racing and it just wasn’t our weekend this time.

"We head to Townsville next, a place where we were strong last year and hopefully we can come out of this weekend with the same speed.

"The qualifying pace was really good so if we can carry that over and race forward from there then it will be great for us.

"We get a couple of weeks off now to regroup and get ready to go again in Townsville.”

The 2021 season will resume at next month’s NTI Townsville 500.

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