SHELL V-POWER RACING MUSTANGS THROUGH TO BATHURST SHOOTOUTOctober 16, 2020Fabian Coulthard/Tony D'Alberto - No. 12 Shell V-Power Racing Ford
Coulthard and McLaughlin spent the opening laps on used tyres, settling into the session before heading to the pits for new rubber. They worked on progressively improving their times. Mid-way through the session, McLaughlin was on for the fastest lap, but the red flag came out when J.Kosteki went into the wall. During the five minutes the damaged vehicle was being recovered, dark clouds rolled over the track, and there were sprinkles of water. But they didn't deter the drivers. Despite going two tenths slower than his quickest in the first sector, McLaughlin jumped to the top of the timesheets by two-thousandths of a second. Coulthard put together a solid lap and jumped seven positions into P5. Rain threatened, and as the field headed out for their final attempt at a lap time, the rain fell and ended the session. McLaughlin finished P3 and Coulthard P6. Earlier today, there were two Practice sessions: Practice 4 The red flag came out halfway through the session when Ojeda went into the wall at The Cutting. When the session resumed, rain was threatening, but it quickly cleared. The cars returned to the track, and both Shell V-Power Racing Team drivers continued to improve their laps times. A second red flag was triggered when Ojeda fired into the wall, but the track team swiftly recovered the car, and the session resumed with just under five minutes remaining. Again, both drivers improved their lap times. Slade finished P4 and D'Alberto P8. Practice 5 With five minutes remaining in the session, both drivers were on track for one final qualifying simulation when there was a near-disaster for the No. 17. After setting the quickest first sector of the session, McLaughlin missed a gear shift on the way down the mountain, lost the rear and made contact with the wall. While there was some damage, he limped back to the garage where the crew were able to repair the car. Despite his small mistake, McLaughlin still claimed P1 while Coulthard was P16
"I think our race car isn't too bad, we learnt a couple of tricks there in qually which I think will aid us in the race. Mark's (engineer) been awesome and we've always had direction and know where we are going and what we will do next. It's a team effort, and we're all doing our bit. We're now focussed on the shootout." D'ALBERTO QUOTE: "I'm a little bit disappointed not to do my fastest lap because of a red flag, but we were still near the top of the timesheets. So, all bodes well for the rest of the weekend, and I'm feeling comfortable which is really good." MCLAUGHLIN QUOTE: SLADE QUOTE: "The car is definitely good enough, we just got caught out there by the weather in qualifying, but we're through to the shootout." Back to previous page.Copyright ©2008-2016 Penske Racing. All rights reserved |