Ford driver Mark Winterbottom has topped the timesheet ahead of this weekend’s V8 Supercar round at Symmons Plains but it was Holden’s Garth Tander who ended the day with the biggest smile.Winterbottom stormed to the fastest ever touring car lap at the tight 2.4km track – 51.608s – to shade Tander by .3s with the Ford of Steven Johnson third.
Tander leads the championship by just 20 points from Craig Lowndes in a Falcon with third-placed Jamie Whincup in another Ford a further nine points back.
Aiming for his third successive round win at the circuit, Tander achieved the first step by distancing himself from his main rivals in the category.
Lowndes could manage no better than eighth fastest in practice while Whincup was a lowly 14th, almost a second off the pace.
Tander, contented with second spot, also revealed he could and should have gone quicker.
“I think our car was actually a fair bit better than the time that we did,” Tander said.
“The second set of tyres that we put on at the end there didn’t grip up as much as we expected.
“I think the car is a lot better and certainly it was fantastic straight out of the truck.
“We did a 52.2s on our first set of tyres after about 40 laps so I think we should have been well into the low 51s on that second run, but it wasn’t to be.
“But we were second and in front of all the guys we are fighting for the championship and that’s what we’re looking at,” he said.
Tander dismissed the mathematical possibility he could wrap up the championship this weekend with only one round, at Phillip Island remaining.
“It’s a massive longshot and really it’s not something that I’m thinking about at all because for it to actually take place a fair bit has to happen – I think I have to win all the races and the other guys have to basically score nothing so that’s not likely to happen.
“But if I do my very best hopefully that will get us to where we need to be by Phillip Island.”
Winterbottom, who snared his first solo round win in Bahrain two weeks ago, declared he would tactically stay out of the title battle but was targeting more race wins.
“I’d rather be fighting for the championship but it’s a good position to watch from,” he said.
“Our goal is to go out and try to stay on top and win the round and if we can do that we’ve still got a lot to achieve for the rest of the year, but it’s going to be interesting to watch the four guys fight it out,” he said.
Like Tander, Winterbottom is convinced he has not seen the ultimate in performance from his car yet.
“The car’s obviously pretty strong and it was a reasonably good lap but you only have to make one mistake and it’s a tenth of a second here which could be four positions,” Winterbottom said.
“But I think there’s a bit left in it for tomorrow.”
AAP
