V8 Supercars – Gold Coast: Bourdais-Whincup again!

Sébastien Bourdais and Jamie Whincup emerge victorious in the first race of the 600 Armor All Gold Coast 2012, on the streets of Surfers Paradise, round 22 of the V8 Supercars season. An epic race, as the number of cars at the finish shows: 18 against 28 on the starting grid, and in which the Mika Salo-Sébastien Bourdais duel was very intense. Competing for first place with “yours, mine” during the first stint, the Finn and the Frenchman put on a breathtaking spectacle before handing over the wheel to their teammates, specialists in the discipline.

Finally, after the salvo of refueling stops, the fight for victory pits Jamie Whincup (Bourdais' teammate on the Vodafone team's No. 1 Holden Commodore) against Jonathan Webb (Holden Tekno Autosports), who will take full advantage of the excellent start race of his traveling companion Marc Lieb. At the finish, the multiple V8 Supercars champion will ultimately only have a 0” lead over his rival. Salo's companion, Will Davison, will unfortunately make a mistake.

The top three is completed by the Ford of the Will Power-Mark Winterbottom pair. The performance of the latter is to be saluted, he who regained the wheel of his Falcon in 9th place, after a bad start from the vice-champion IndyCar 2012.

Note that only 79 laps out of the 102 planned were completed due to the two red flags that punctuated the first hour. At the start, James Hinchcliffe, in slow motion, will be hit by Vitantonio Liuzzi, who will himself be hit by simon pagenaud. Behind, Ricky Taylor cannot avoid them and rolls over (see video here), before falling back onto the roof. If the driver escaped unscathed, this was not the case for the car, which was heavily damaged. During the second standing start, Nicolas Minassian failed to get going, and was hit by Franck Montagny, bringing both cars to the ground. In summary, the cars bearing the numbers 33 (Greg Ritter / Ricky Taylor), 34 (Michael Caruso / James Hinchcliffe), 4 (Lee Holdsworth / Simon Pagenaud) and 3 (Tony D'Alberto / Vitantonio Liuzzi), before the n°14 (Fabian Coulthard / Nicolas Minassian) and the n°11 (Karl Reindler / Franck Montagny) also gave up during the second straight start. The #18 of James Moffat-Peter Kox will capitulate on the 19th lap after a collision with the wall, which will also put the #7 of Tim Blanchard-Marco Andretti out of the race. The No. 49 of Steve Owen-Boris Said will not see the finish following a steering problem, just like the No. 55 of David Reynolds-Nick Heidfeld, due to contact.

Jamie Whincup and Sébastien Bourdais, already winners of the first of the two races of the Armor All Gold Coast 600 2011, confirm that they are the men to beat on the streets of Surfers Paradise, especially since the first named had managed to take pole position during the Top 10 Shootout. See you tomorrow for the second race, during which the Australian and the Frenchman will aim for the top prize.

1 Armor All Gold Coast 600 Race 2012 Standings:

1 – Jamie Whincup / Sébastien Bourdais
2 – Jonathon Webb / Marc Lieb
3 – Mark Winterbottom / Will Power
4 – Garth Tander / Ryan Briscoe
5 – Tim Slade / David Brabham
6 – Craig Lowndes / Richard Lyons
7- James Courtney / Darren Turner
8 – Rick Kelly / Graham Rahal
9 – Russell Ingall / Peter Dumbreck
10 – Shane van Gisbergen / Jeroen Bleekemolen
11-Michael Patrizi
12 – Jason Bright / Sarrazin Stephane
13 – Greg Murphy / Justin Wilson
14 – Taz Douglas / Mike conway
15 – David Wall / Jamie Campbell-Water
16 – Steven Johnson / Max Papis
17 – Dean Fiore / Gianni Morbidelli
18 – Will Davison / Mika Salo