Holden Racing Team - Day 4 Summary
7/4/2005 14:59 (Press Release) -
AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX – DAY 4
Albert Park, Melbourne; March 6, 2005
Weather: Cool, overcast, 17 degrees
Race 3 (9 laps x 5.3km)
1st: Mark Skaife (HRT Commodore VZ)
DNS: Todd Kelly (HRT Commodore VZ)
Race summary:
Mark Skaife started from 3rd position while Todd Kelly failed to start due to damage incurred in yesterday’s second race. Skaife was overtaken by both Marcos Ambrose and Russell Ingall in the run to the first corner, himself overtaking Brad Jones and then John Bowe to complete the first lap in 3rd placing. He caught Ingall on Lap 2, and took the lead from Ambrose on Lap 4 with a classic switch-back manoeuvre through Turns 1 and 2 and was never threatened for the remainder of the nine-lap race.
Weekend summary:
Mark Skaife – 3rd, 3rd, 1st
Todd Kelly – 1st, DNF, DNS
Notes:
- Two of the three races contested this weekend were won by the Holden Racing Team
- Skaife’s result (3rd, 3rd, 1st) makes him the most successful driver on the weekend, beating Ambrose’s 2nd, 4th, 2nd.
- Skaife’s first race victory since August 15, 2004 (Oran Park, Race 1)
- Skaife’s first victory in a Grand Prix support race since Race 1, 2001
Mark Skaife:
“We’ve had car speed all weekend, the guys have done a great job in the off season with building new cars and with all the engine work we’ve done. As Marcos said, we’ve had a great battle over the weekend and I probably enjoyed yesterday’s race more than today’s because when cars are hard to drive they’ve got very little grip and they move around a lot and it’s very easy to make a mistake. Between yesterday’s and today’s races it’s been a cracker battle and I know when it’s like that all the drivers like to really race.
“The reason that the Stone Brothers guys are sitting here and that the HRT cars have been so strong is that the stability (in both teams) has been very good. You go down to the garage and the same guys are there, we’ve got a great vibe around the place. On race weekends I don’t come along as a team owner at all, I come along to drive the car and I’ve said that for a long time now and it’s certainly the case. I feel good about it; I think it’s a welcome return to where it should be.
“I feel really good about it, I’ve probably had the best preparation to the season that I’ve had for a few years now. Clearly, you’re motivated by how good the cars are, I knew they were going to be much better. I know the guys have worked so hard, so you really want for all that to work well.
“Over the weekend I didn’t qualify well, I was angry with myself, I got boxed in the first race with Marcos, he outfoxed me in the early part of the first race. I didn’t do a good enough job in the first race, but I thought I drove well yesterday and I drove well today.
“I thought at the end of last year the monkey was well off our back, we were plenty competitive enough in plenty of places but the monkey is certainly off our back, the promise of the weekend indicates that. I don’t feel like, going into Adelaide, we have to make up so much. This time last year we were in a car that was an eight out of ten, this time it’s probably a nine or nine-and-a-half.”
(On overtaking Ambrose on Lap 4)
“We both had a little run wide at Turn 15, the little left-hand hairpin, so we didn’t really approach the straight on the right angle, we were both a bit narrow, and we were both a bit oversteery. I nearly got up the inside up the straight, the cars were both very equal in drive and straight line speed and I knew that on the dirty side of the road up there I couldn’t make up a car length, or a car length and a half, so I snuck straight across, way outside where Marcos’s mirrors were, over to the left. He braked deep, and I thought when he turned in he was going to make it okay, but I was able to switch back and come up the side. We’ve all done one of those and we’ve all copped one of those, so it’s one of those sports that lends itself to that. Marcos gave me room on the exit to Turn 2 and instead of having a bumping duel we were able to get on with the rest of it.”
Release Date: 06/03/2005
Holden Racing Team
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