Review of race 1 at Abu Dahbi 2011

Hello to all you V8 Supercars fans

Race 1

In 2011 round 1 was held in Abu Dhabi; Craig Lowndes of Team Vodafone in car 888 started on pole position alongside him was his teammate Jamie Whincup in car 88. Both Jamie and Craig got away to a bad start in race 1. The strategy for car 88 was bring him in on lap 15 and then stay out until lap 30 when Jamie came out back out onto the Yas Marina Circuit the defending series champion James Courtney qualified in 20^th and finished 27^th the way that I can some up James Courtney’s defense of his title was one word ‘crap’. James had a problem with his front left steering arm – whoops. After James rejoined the race he was 1 lap down due to the problems he had with the car. Jason Bargwanna got turned around by James Courtney on lap 6 and also the margin that Jamie had was 13 seconds now believe me that is a bloody walloping.

Mark Larkham’s critical lap number was lap 25 that was the earliest you could get in fill up and get to the end of both races 1 and 2.

I thought that Jamie’s victory was just bloody awesome.

Results for race 1

1^st Jamie Whincup – Team Vodafone

2^nd Alex Davison – Stone Brothers Racing

3^rd Mark Winterbottom – Ford Performance Racing

Race 2

In race 2 last year Jamie Whincup started on pole with Craig Lowndes (they swapped position from race 1). At the start of race 2 Tony D’Alberto crashed while being off the racetrack on the left hand side, both Craig and Jamie were saved from being involved in that accident on lap 1.

Now there is a twist when the safety car came out everybody filed into the pitlane at once and when  they came back out they were all complaining that the Safety car was just going way too slow. With the whole field sitting right behind it and of course the cars couldn’t pass under safety car or speed up otherwise if they would they have copped a pit lane penalty.

Will Davison was very lucky to not get a drive thru penalty by pulling in behind Jason Bright coming out of his pit box, but then Lee Holdsworth car 33 made contact with Will Davison which resulted in a spin for Will in car 6. Right at end James was battling fuel economy in car 1, battling with Jason for the win, when Jason got in front of James Team BOC thought that they were going to get their 1^st race win but it wasn’t to be, unfortunately for Team BOC and Brad Jones Racing.

Jamie got 2 podiums with a 1^st and a 3^rd.

Results Race 2

1^st James Courtney – Holden Racing Team

2^nd Jason Bright – Brad Jones Racing

3^rd Jamie Whincup – Team Vodafone