jamie whincup

For most of the race, pole-sitter Sebastian Vettel looked to have the 2010 season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix in his keeping. Having qualified fastest and started the race on Bridgestone's super-soft Potenza rubber, he kept the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa at bay for lap after lap. That was until a cracked exhaust robbed him of power and he could only watch as Alonso, Massa and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton eased past to take the podium positions.

Today we were very happy with tyre performance. This was the first race under these new regulations so no-one knew exactly what to expect   -Hirohide Hamashima

 

1 IT IS possible to follow an entire season of V8 Supercar racing without once hearing the name Lara Bingle. Indeed, the only bingles are on the track. 2 V8 Supercar fans demonstrate their loyalty by buying Fords and Holdens, thereby boosting the local economy. NRL and AFL fans demonstrate their loyalty by buying scarves and caps, thereby boosting the economies of Asian sweatshops. 3 Neither Fatty Vautin nor Sam Newman present programs about V8 Supercars. 4 If a track official decided to perform his  

Whincup won the Top 10 Shootout with a time of 1min 21.588s, 0.2s clear of nearest rival Garth Tander. Tander had been quickest in the morning's first qualifying session but was no match when Whincup turned up the heat. With just top-three qualifiers Whincup, Dumbrell and Tander to go, Mark Winterbottom lifted the benchmark when he clocked 1min 21.836s, leaping from sixth position to hold pole.  

The Australian V8 Supercars are back on home soil for the first time this year for the third round of the series this weekend at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide. The burning question is can Jamie Whincup make it six from six? The TeamVodafone Triple Eight driver has the wood on everyone else with the maximum points from the first two rounds.  

Holden's Whincup overcame several difficulties during the session including a spin to set the quickest lap time in the dying seconds around the Adelaide street circuit. The Team Vodafone driver clocked one minute 21.3729 seconds to edge Ford's Shane Van Gisbergen (1:21.5271) and Holden's Paul Dumbrell (1:21.7965). Whincup has won all four races so far this year. Qualifying and the first of two 250km races will be held on Saturday.  

A driver who wins all of the Big Four events - starting at the Clipsal 500 Adelaide this weekend - will take the new Grand Slam prize. "It's the biggest prize ever offered in motorsport in Australia and one of the biggest prizes ever offered in any sport in Australia," Tony Cchrane, chairman of V8 Supercars Australia said this morning. Announcing the "massive prize" in a pit lane press conference, Mr Cochrane said it would be a very difficult feat to achieve all Big Four victories.

If someone has won the first three, it's going to play on your mind   -Jamie Whincup

 

Those joking that Greg Murphy's arrival at Paul Morris Motorsport is part of a team strategy to get more seniors' parking places, be warned. Murphy, who has teamed with fellow veteran Russell Ingall for this season, believes the move will take him back to the pointy end of the V8 Supercar grid. Murphy, 37, was left without a drive after his former operation Tasman Motorsport shut their doors at the end of last season.

I'd like to make sure the term 'veteran' is only a symbolisation of our ages, nothing more   -Greg Murphy

 

Ford's new No.1 man Mark Winterbottom says there are no excuses for failure after his best ever start in his quest for a maiden V8 Supercar championship. Winterbottom sits second in the points standings going into this weekend's Clipsal 500 in Adelaide - confirming his status as Ford's best hope of winning the title after Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes' departure to Holden. But ahead of him is two-time defending champion Whincup, the sport's new Mr Perfect and raging title favourite after winning the

There's a bigger consequence if we don't win now. There's pressure and we have to step up, but there's opportunity as well   -Mark Winterbottom

 

Whincup's unbeaten run sees him head into the Australian rounds at the Clipsal 500 with a perfect score. Mark Winterbottom holds second place in the series from Shane van Gisbergen, Craig Lowndes and James Courtney. The Clipsal 500 in Adelaide first run in 1999 has been recognised on four occasions as the winner of the 'Major Festivals and Events' category at the Australian Tourism Awards (2003/04, 2005, 2007 and 2008), demonstrating the event is more than a motor race, comparing with the best the cou