Full Throttle

Mark Skaife has lauded the technicality of the Shanghai International Circuit after setting the fastest time - and a lap record for the V8s - during practice for Round 5 of the V8 Supercar Championship Series in Shanghai.

Skaife kept pace with the faster drivers throughout the two-hour session on Friday afternoon, but managed to slip to the top of the times with only a few minutes remaining.

He lapped in 1 minute 49.8334 seconds, edging Ford Performance Racing’s Jason Bright (1:49.9560), who was the only other driver to lap in less than 1:50.

Super Cheap Auto Racing’s Greg Murphy was third fastest in 1:50.0115, while HSV Dealer Team’s Garth Tander lapped in 1:50.0293 and Holden Racing Team’s Todd Kelly rounded out the five fastest in 1:50.1533.

The session began in the rain, but the track had dried significantly after 90 minutes had passed and Skaife said it was good to have the opportunity to experience both wet and dry conditions.

“The track had a very high grip level for those conditions,” Skaife said of it when it was wet.

“It was very good to drive when it’s like that because in those big long corners you slide around a lot.”

“As the conditions dried up, we had to be more disciplined with how you position the car and what you do with it to get it turned in at some of those slower corners,” he said.

Murphy agreed that it was good to have the opportunity to drive on a track with such grip.

“In the wet it’s nice to drive on a circuit that had that much grip and the balance of the car was pretty much same in the dry,” he said.

Less than half a second separated the first five drivers, with the entire field lapping within 3.5 and Murphy said it was a credit to the drivers and mechanics that the series could move to a new track and the teams were able to perform so well, first-time out.

“I don’t think you’ll find any category in the world with 32 cars in it that in the first session have everyone so close,” he said.

“It’s a credit to everybody here how quickly and how well they’ve acclimatised and got on the circuit and done the job.”

In comparison eight seconds separated the field in the first practice session of the inaugural Formula One Grand Prix at the track last year.

The session was held up three times as drivers left the track while testing the limits of the circuit.

Dodo Racing’s Jason Richards set the pace early, but later had the dubious honour of being the first driver to bring out a red flag when he went off into the gravel at turn three just after the first hour had passed.

All drivers took the opportunity to change to slicks during the break and while the times rapidly improved, the occurrences of cars leaving the track also increased.

Richards’ teammate Jamie Winchup lost traction coming off the back straight and into the hairpin corner and then as he approached turn one he went off into the gravel and broke off his front guard as he slid over a ditch.

Autobarn Racing’s Paul Dumbrell brought the third flag out when he did the same thing 20 minutes later.

Source: Sportal.com