Last round winner Winterbottom was disappointed at not being able to exploit his Ford Performance Racing car's potential, complaining of traffic right at the end of the day, but insisted that his race pace will be strong.
Davison, meanwhile, is confident of making further improvements overnight and still believes there is room for more speed in the #18 Jim Beam Falcon prior to qualifying on Sunday morning.
"The car still isn't quite there and there is definitely room for improvement," he noted, "Having said that, to be top five and know there is still some speed left holds us in good stead. We had a decent car today and I am happy with we're we are at at this stage of the weekend."
Whincup and Triple Eight Engineering team-mate Craig Lowndes both suffered matching suspension failures at identical times, bringing out a red flag whilst the cars were retrieved. A broken pin on the right front wheel hub caused both cars to grind to a halt with the wheel canted at a drunken angle, and Lowndes in particular was fortunate to pull the car up before encountering the Armco barrier in turn three.
“There wasn't any warning,” he admitted, “We've got through riding high kerbs at street races like Adelaide and Hamilton without a problem, so we'll just have to revert back to what we previously ran and investigate why there was a failure. It happened at the high speed apex of turn two - I heard a crack and was fortunate not to hit the wall at the next corner. Luckily, there was a 25-minute break between sessions, so the boys could turn both our cars around again – even if we lost some track time.”
Whincup's similar problem occurred at the last corner, 'when the suspension was under load', but the points frontrunner also lost 'a good tyre' which blew out when the part broke.
