Brown plays down early Triple Eight AGP result
Supercars
21 Mar
Will Brown 15th, Broc Feeney 20th in first Melbourne practice
Macauley Jones fastest ahead of Matt Payne, Cam Waters
Brown leads Feeney by nine points in championship standings
Championship leader Will Brown has played down Triple Eight’s circumspect start in Melbourne, and isn’t reading too far into his early points lead.
Red Bull Ampol Racing drivers Brown and Broc Feeney, who shared the wins at the season-opening Thrifty Bathurst 500, were 15th and 20th in Practice 1 on Thursday at the MSS Security Melbourne SuperSprint.
Brown ran off the road at Turn 1 early in the session, which was topped by Brad Jones Racing driver Macauley Jones. However, the Queenslander recovered and held a top 10 position, before late runs ultimately dropped the #87 Camaro to 15th.
Feeney — who won the Albert Park finale last year — ended up 20th, some 1.1s off the ultimate pace.
However, when asked about the result, Brown replied: “We're just trying stuff. I'm actually not frustrated at all.
"I felt pretty good out there. We were just sort of doing our race runs, and I think a fair few people obviously threw tyres at it towards the end there."
Brown leads the championship after just one weekend with Triple Eight, albeit by nine points over teammate Feeney.
Chaz Mostert, who was seventh in Practice 1, is just 21 points behind Brown, who is determined to bring home results in early rounds, rather than get caught up in championship hype.
"I'm here to win races and that's what I'm trying to do this weekend. Not focused on that just yet,” he said.
"I know people say that, but you know, it is an element of it. You don't want to go out there and crash, but I want to win races.
"You try and stop yourself from crashing or putting yourself in a bad position and you usually end up in a bad position.
“So, it's just about going out there, racing, do what you do, go as fast as you can and see where you end up.”
Practice 2 for the MSS Security Melbourne SuperSprint, another 30-minute session, starts this afternoon at 13:25 local time/AEDT.
Supercars will return to the track for Practice 2 at 1:25pm AEST, ahead of Race 3 Qualifying Race 3 at 3:10pm, followed by Race 4 Qualifying at 3:35pm.
Race 3 starts at 5:55pm, and will run for 19 laps or one lap after 6:33pm.
