Pushing hard

While he is leading the V8 Supercars championship, Red Bull ace Jamie Whincup is not satisfied with claiming only a single race win so far this year.

The six-time champion won the opening race of the season at the Clipsal 500 for the third consecutive year in his Triple Eight Holden Commodore, but he has yet to get to the chequered flag first again.

However, in an unpredictable season where six different drivers have won the seven points-paying races, Whincup has been the most consistent, finishing second three times and fourth once.

At the WD-40 Phillip Island SuperSprint he was headed for two seconds behind Scott McLaughlin until spearing off at turn 11 trying to keep the flying Volvo in sight in Sunday’s 200km outing. He dropped to fourth in the race as a result.

Whincup emerged from Phillip Island with a 15 point championship lead. He is the third different leader in three rounds, with Nissan’s Michael Caruso on top of the points after the Clipsal 500 and Tekno Autosport’s Will Davison leading the way post-Tasmania.

“I am not thinking about the championship,” Whincup told v8supercars.com. “I am just thinking about winning races.

“We have had a few good results, but we haven’t won many races. I am trying to win races which is the main thing, which is what I was trying to do last Sunday.

“To be honest, second or fourth is no real difference. But in saying that I don’t like making mistakes; I made an error that cost me two spots. I will go away and work out why and then try and do better next time.”

The late-race Phillip Island issue hasn’t been the only notable off for Whincup this year. He made a bold bid for the lead around the outside of McLaughlin at the start of the Sunday race at the island and ended up in the grass. He also spun into the gravel trap in qualifying at turn 2 earlier in the day after his foot slipped off the brake pedal.

The previous event at Symmons Plains he made a self-admitted ‘rookie error’ on cold tyres to spear into the turn 4 gravel trap during the hectic Sunday race.

“A few errors have happened in a short space,” he conceded. “Obviously my job is not to make any errors so maybe I need to back it off a bit.  But that is not my style so I will just keep going for the win.”

“The big moment at turn one, I tried to get around the outside and he (McLaughlin) didn’t leave me much room,” Whincup explained when asked about his Phillip Island adventures.

“I am not suggesting he did anything wrong. There is just no room on the outside so I had to make for the grass. It’s hard racing that’s what it is all about.

 “Then I was just pushing too hard coming on to the front straight, got some aero understeer and ended up on the grass. It could have been better, but it also could have been a lot worse.

 “For sure we could have cruised home in second but we were going for the win.”

Whincup didn’t agree with the theory that the pressure level had ratcheted up even further in the championship in 2016, with so many drivers shifting teams including the arrival of his own new team-mate Shane van Gisbergen at Red Bull.

 “I don’t think so, It’s probably too early to say,” Whincup pondered. “If you say that you disrespect the other years. The other years have been crackers. So I think this is shaping up to be just as good and maybe better.”

Whincup admitted that he and T8 had arrived at Phillip Island expecting a strong performance from McLaughlin and the Volvo S60.

“He has been very quick here the last three years and we expected him to be very fast here. If he has that speed everywhere else then they are going to be very good; but that’s the trick.

“We have been in the past, let’s hope it’s the same again this year.

“No-one has had a clean run; no-one has really done an awesome job. I would rather be leading than anywhere else, but we have some work to do.

“We weren’t the quickest car so we will have to step it up.”