No Back to the Future

Prodrive team boss Tim Edwards says today's pit lane mishap with Mark Winterbottom does not mean the team is back to its old ways.

After years fighting for the title, the team has not been able to stay on top in the second part of the season, with errors creeping in and others capitalising.

But Edwards stood firm despite a difficult day declaring he didn't care what others may say after an unsafe release cost Championship leader Mark Winterbottom in pit lane.

"I saw other people having accidents and issues today," he told v8supercars.com.au.

"They can say what they like. Who cares, the reality is we know we did a poor job today and we have got to make sure we don't do it again.

"I don't particularly care what they say.

"We have been the closest team to them (Triple Eight) for years so any one who makes that sort of comment is a naive imbecile."

Co-driver Steve Owen pitted from fourth on-track, with Winterbottom jumping in the car for his first laps of the race.

The #5 Pepsi Max Falcon was released into traffic and made contact with Garth Tander's Holden Racing Team Commodore. Not only did the team replace the whole right front of the car, Winterbottom had to serve a drive though pit lane penalty before circulating on old hard tyres.

"It was like watching in slow motion," Edwards said of seeing the stop unfold.

"You're kind of dropping the car, the fuel hose is coming out, you're watching the other cars stopping and moving and it's like, we're going too slow.

"It wasn't the fastest pit box exit and every little tenth here, a tenth here, a tenth there and there's the three tenths we needed to drop in in front of Dave."

Winterbottom, though clearly disappointed, was confident of bouncing back tomorrow.

"It is what it is," he said of the result.

"I've got a good car, it's quick, we qualified top three - we didn't get beaten today, we just threw it away. That's the good thing, we've got a good car, the team know what they're doing, we just have to tidy up little things.

"We'll just go again - we've got tomorrow. We had a good lead, good Championship, we just can't get the jitters at the end. We have to try and do what we've been doing."

Winterbottom admitted it was difficult to take, but didn't place blame with the team.

"It's the human element of a technical sport," he said.

"We'll bounce back tomorrow - you don't dwell on it, you get back into it, go again and the best way to redeem a bottom lip drop is to go out and win this thing."

Winterbottom finished 23rd and 14 laps down but continues to lead the title hunt by 306 over Craig Lowndes, who finished third today with Steven Richards.