Muscle power and some nifty driving got Lockwood Racing’s Fabian Coulthard up to fifth in today’s Top Ten Shoot-Out at Bathurst despite a shaky start to his lap.
Coulthard’s final sector was the fastest of the session and his middle sector was the second fastest by 0.01s, allowing him to regain some of the 0.4s he gave away at Turn One.
The Kiwi, who was second in yesterday’s provisional qualifying, has had some bad luck at the Bathurst 1000 in recent years but says scoring his best-ever starting position at Mount Panorama is hopefully a good omen for tomorrow’s race.
The 50th anniversary running of the Bathurst 1000 will start tomorrow at 10.30am.
Fabian Coulthard
Lockwood Racing
“Getting the tyres up to temp was the biggest thing for us and obviously it shows because we started off poorly in the first sector and then got better and better until I got the quickest last sector.
“You only have one lap to do it though and you have to make the most of it. Overall I’m happy with the result; it’s the best qualifying position I’ve had at this circuit, and the most important thing was for the car to come back in one piece because the race is tomorrow.
“We need to focus on the race car now, and I’m pretty confident that we have a good one for tomorrow.”
2012 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 – V8 Supercars Championship
MOUNT PANORAMA
V8 SUPERCARS – Top Ten Shoot-Out
01 Will Davison, Trading Post FPR Ford, 2:08.0693
02 Jamie Whincup, TeamVodafone, +0.0315
03 Shane Van Gisbergen, SP Tools Racing Ford, +0.1098
04 Mark Winterbottom, Orrcon Steel FPR Ford, +0.1270
05 Fabian Coulthard, Lockwood Racing, +0.2692
06 Garth Tander, Holden Racing Team, +0.4062
07 Tim Slade, Lucky 7 Racing, +0.5302
08 David Reynolds, The Bottle-O Racing Team, +0.8173
09 Craig Lowndes, TeamVodafone, +1.0304
10 Steve Owen, VIP Petfoods, +2.0030
