Fabian Coulthard's podium chances ruined by penalty at Winton 400

A pitlane speeding penalty destroyed Fabian Coulthard's chance of winning today's 200km feature race at Winton for round 3 of the V8 Supercar championship.

Starting from third on the grid, Coulthard preserved his tyres well throughout the race and was within a second of leader Mark Winterbottom when they both pulled into the pits for their second stop on lap 48.

Fabian Coulthard, Lockwood Racing

Photo by: Edge Photographics

Sadly, Coulthard was deemed to have broken the pitlane speed limit - along with a host of other drivers, including pole sitter Scott McLaughlin.

That dropped the Lockwood Racing VF Commodore out of the top 10 and despite making up a number of places Coulthard finished the race in 11th.

Fabian Coulthard
"I doubt it would have been even a couple of kilometres over. I felt like I was definitely under the speed but whatever the system is you have to abide by it so it's pretty disappointing. That's life though, you've got to roll with the punches and overall it's been a good weekend. We've had two poles and two podiums so we really can't leave here too disappointed but on the downside we could have finished the weekend a whole heap better than we did. Anyway, that's the way it goes, chin up and onwards and upwards to the next one."

FPR's Mark Winterbottom won the race from James Courtney and Tim Slade.

Team BOC's Jason Bright finished fourth after a strong run from 12th on the grid.

Coulthard now sits third in the championship after three rounds on 658 points, 15 behind Mark Winterbottom and 43 behind series leader Craig Lowndes.

Lockwood Racing