After breaking into the top ten in qualifying for the first time this season, Paul Morris saw the opening race of the V8 Supercar Championship weekend in Bahrain end in disappointment when he was forced to retire on the opening lap.
Morris had qualified in a fine eighth place in the Sirromet Wines Holden Commodore at the Desert circuit but his chances of building on that performance in the opening race came to an abrupt end exiting turn five.
Having been forced wide coming out of the corner, contact with the Team Vodafone Falcon of Craig Lowndes damaged the front upright and broke the right-front wheel on the Holden and left a disappointed Morris on the sidelines.
Lowndes was also forced to retire on the spot, while the sister Team Vodafone Falcon of Jamie Whincup picked up damage while taking avoiding action and retired later in the race.
"I made a good start and I was behind Rick Kelly," Morris explained. "Something happened in front of him and he had to slow so I went to the left to avoid hitting him. Will Davison fired up the inside of Craig Lowndes and everything happened after that. I think Davison hit Lowndes, and then he hit me.
"This allowed Greg Murphy to get a run on Lowndes and they were swerving all over the road and made contact. Lowndes bounced off Murphy into me and it broke the upright and wheel. I had nothing to do with whatever happened to Whincup.
"It was disappointing to go out of the race so early because I thought we had a top ten car today. Qualifying went really well. The car had some understeer in the first part of qualifying, but we made an adjustment and it was much better on new tyres. The worst part of the crash is I lost my good grid position and I have to start down the back in tomorrow's races."
Team-mate Owen Kelly, driving the older VZ Commodore, finish the race in 20th place.
