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Focus now on development, not repair says Winterbottom

A crash-free Phillip Island weekend is key to V8 Supercars squad Prodrive Racing Australia’s progress, according to driver Mark Winterbottom.

Mark Winterbottom, Prodrive Racing Australia Ford

Mark Winterbottom, Prodrive Racing Australia Ford

Dirk Klynsmith

Mark Winterbottom, Prodrive Racing Australia Ford
Mark Winterbottom, Prodrive Racing Australia Ford
Mark Winterbottom, Prodrive Racing Australia Ford
Chaz Mostert, Rod Nash Racing Ford
Mark Winterbottom, Prodrive Racing Australia Ford
Podium: second place Mark Winterbottom, Prodrive Racing Australia Ford, third place Scott Pye, Team Penske Ford

Reigning champion Winterbottom has enjoyed a low-key start to the 2016 season, but thanks to inconsistent form – which has seen six different winners from the seven points-paying races so far – he is third in the title race, just 24 points behind leader Jamie Whincup.

While Winterbottom admits he got as much as could be expected out of the Phillip Island weekend in terms of points, he says the big bonus is that for the first time the team has no major crash damage to deal with between rounds for the first time this season.

“Our qualifying speed has been great, [but] our race pace has been down a little bit,” said Winterbottom.

“[Sunday] let the stints even out, which was nice. We did three even stints whereas [on Saturday] we did 25 laps on tyres, and that was pushing it.

“We’ve got work to do in the workshop, and it’s nice not to have damaged cars for once going back there, to actually concentrate on development, not repair.

“I’m looking forward to the next one. Perth has been good to us, fingers crossed we can get back up again and start winning races.”

The Prodrive squad had a horror run in terms of damage at the beginning of the season, with both Chaz Mostert and Chris Pither having significant crashes during the Clipsal 500 weekend. Pither was then caught up in another chassis-crunching crash at Symmons Plains.

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