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After setting the pace at the Reid Park Circuit last weekend, the Red Bull Holden Racing Team entered the Robson Civil Projects Townsville SuperSprint with high expectations.
A week ago, Jamie Whincup collected two ARMOR ALL Poles and two racing victories, at a circuit that has traditionally been one of the strongest for the Queensland-based team.
Today’s seven-time champion, while losing ground in the title fight with Scott McLaughlin, finished fourth as rival Ford dominated.
Whincup had been second behind McLaughlin in Q2, but his day turned much more difficult when a mistake in the Top 10 Shootout left him starting seventh.
Although he managed two places from the start, progressing from there proved difficult as his Red Bull Commodore proved to have lost last weekend’s lead.
“We just weren’t fast enough today,” was Whincup’s blunt assessment, having finished fourth after teammate Shane van Gisbergen withdrew with a power steering problem.
“We gave ourselves every opportunity and DC [David Cauchi, #88 race engineer] gave us an aggressive strategy to get us out in front of Chaz [Mostert] and Cam [Waters], but today we did not have the rhythm and balance of the car.
“I am not very disappointed with a P4 result, but the fact that we were not as fast as last weekend and a failure in car # 97 is a real disappointment for the team.
“We’ll go over the data tonight, sleep well, grab a couple of Red Bulls in the morning and see if we can do a better job for another day of back-to-back racing.”
Van Gisbergen had qualified second and held that position from the start, before the steering problem hit midway while leading and still in the pits.
While the team immediately pitted the car and switched to a larger wheel to help Van Gisbergen move the car, officials issued a black flag and he was forced to withdraw.
“I made a small mistake on the penalty shoot-out that wasn’t enough to cost us pole, but I managed to stay second, which was great,” reflected van Gisbergen.
“The race was going well and the car felt good.
“I’m not really sure what our strategy was, but unfortunately I didn’t have a chance to find out; the power steering came loose at turn 10 so we were lucky we didn’t end up with a damaged car, but hopefully we can fix the power steering rack for both races tomorrow.
