Frosty fires to second season win

Mark Winterbottom has taken an emphatic win in New Zealand, while the Red Bulls collided in an explosive 100km dash.

Jamie Whincup was hit with a pit lane penalty after knocking his teammate off the track, forcing Shane van Gisbergen to charge back through the field to take third in the third race of the ITM Auckland SuperSprint.  

The teammates spoke straight after the race, both calm about the incident.

“It’s happened, I hear he’s apologised, so that’s ok. P3 is ok,” Van Gisbergen said.

Whincup’s side: “I feel bad – everyone wanted that to happen, we were trying to make sure it didn’t happen. It was completely my fault, locked the rears, had a heaps quicker car than Shane, he let me through and I made a meal of it.”

He added: “The good thing is Shane got up there and got good points … it was a bit of a clumsy one, wasn’t a big hard battle, just got a bit clumsy.”  

Finishing 25th is a big blow to Whincup’s championship standings, with van Gisbergen now 197 ahead in the points.  

Starting on the second row, the defending Supercars champion got the jump off the startline with Scott Pye, who has earned his career best finish at the circuit where he finished third last year.

Sailing home by 10 seconds, Winterbottom was pleased to take his second victory of the season after Triple Eight’s dominance yesterday.

“That’s awesome, I spoke to Ollie [son] last night and he said he wanted a trophy for kinder, I thought, P3, I’d get him one … those blokes have been dominating, we put them under pressure and got a win.”

His start was critical and after last year’s pressure against teammate Chaz Mostert off the line, he showed he still has the goods.

“I might be old but I can still get them off the line!”

Craig Lowndes came home fourth, with Pye’s DJR Team Penske teammate Fabian Coulthard in fifth.

Click here for full results.

One 100km race remains at the ITM Auckland SuperSprint with the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy to be decided.