Ford Performance Racing was able to secure its second straight win at the Desert 400 in Bahrain after a double race victory saw Mark Winterbottom secure his first solo V8 Supercar round win.
The Orrcon Ford Credit Racing man was the driver to beat at the home of the Bahrain
Formula 1 Grand Prix and set the pace in qualifying to snare pole position. From there, he stormed to victory in the opening race of the weekend and then repeated the feat in race two to put himself firmly in the driver's seat for the round win.
Although unable to make it a hat-trick, third in race three behind Craig Lowndes and James Courtney was enough to give Winterbottom the second round victory of his career – and the first while 'going solo'.
"This has been a long time coming - to have the speed that we have had and not get the results has been very disappointing for the team," he admitted. "This weekend all went smoothly and when it is like that you get the results. It is great to have gained my first solo win at this major international event and to keep the team's undefeated Desert 400 champions' title intact. The team did an outstanding job this weekend."
Castrol FPR Falcon driver Steve Richards drove well to overcome a disappointing opening race to make his way from 25th to sixth in the second Bahrain heat.
He was competing strongly within the top five in race three when a damaged rear panel caused by contact with Dean Canto at the first corner forced him into the pits under the mechanical black flag. Then the team received a 15 second pit lane penalty for not immediately pitting to rectify the damage. This dropped the Victorian driver to the back of the pack and meant he could only finish race three down in 25th place.
"There isn't much that I can say about the third race, as we had a car that was good enough to be on the podium but due to damage inflicted by others we paid a heavy price," he reflected. "The second race was very rewarding as we were able to show how good the car was by moving through the field very well.
![Steven Richards - Ford Performance Racing [Pic credit: FPR]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/395116.jpg)
