Motor racing: Whincup muscling up points table

Kiwi Fabian Coulthard has slipped into third place on the points table behind Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes of Red Bull Racing Australia.

Jamie Whincup has got the defence of his title well and truly under way, hauling himself up the points table last weekend from seventh to second.

The four-time V8 Supercars champion is tucked in behind Craig Lowndes with Kiwi Fabian Coulthard slipping to third. On his way to his race one win last weekend Whincup dived up the inside of Lowndes making contact and firing his Red Bull Racing Australia teammate off.

"It was an awkward situation and one of the most awkward we've had," said Whincup. "It was a text book move. I was well up the inside but that's the way if goes. We sorted it out straight away."

The incident certainly fired Lowndes up as he stormed from last to fifth in race two and disappeared into the sunset in race three.

But if the teammates even look like taking each other out again, team management will be down on the offender like a ton of bricks.

Another driver to make amends for a rocky Clipsal 500 was man-of-the-moment Volvo driver Scott McLaughlin, who grabbed a fist full of points to get himself back inside the top 10 in seventh, with fellow Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen in sixth.

"We had a few good battles with Lowndes and Whincup and I'm loving it," said McLaughlin. "I enjoy the challenge and honestly it teaches you a lot and I enjoy those battles. When they come up behind you it's 'righto, bring it on' and I get excited.

"We got the power steering problem sorted so it's good to go into this round knowing it's working.

"Winton is not going to be one of our strongest tracks due to the characteristics; we haven't got as much front grip as rear grip.

"But the boys are doing a great job and I still think we will be pretty good. I'm hoping to continue scoring vital points."

Best placed Kiwi driver in the championship is Lockwood Racing's Fabian Coulthard, who is a mere 15 points behind Whincup having had a steady race weekend last time out.

The problem for the team, though, is getting the car to qualify well.

There's been a bit of head scratching in the Brad Jones Racing garage, as last year Coulthard had the best qualifying record and so far in 2014 he's struggled mightily. The engineers and mechanics have got the car sorted for race pace as shown by the Kiwi moving up through the field every time he races.

"I don't really know what's going on with qualifying at the moment as we were so good last year," said Coulthard. "We've got great race pace and were on the podium in Tasmania and collected some good points in the championship.

"The practice window is so tight now that trying to get the car tuned for qualifying is really hard. We made some progress last weekend and hope to be better at Winton."

After a bit of an average race weekend by his standards, van Gisbergen is looking to make amends at the Victorian track this weekend and get himself back up towards the pointy end of the point's table.

"The car's all good as the damage was only really cosmetic," said van Gisbergen. "Winton will be better as the track's a bit longer with a few more corners. It's probably one of the toughest tracks for us Queensland teams, as it's the test track for all the Victorian-based team [two-thirds of the field], but I'm sure we'll be able to shake them up."

Last year there were three different winners, among them James Moffat in the Nissan who notched up the manufacturers' maiden V8 Supercars win. Mark Winterbottom and James Courtney picked up a win each and with Courtney looking pretty sharp so far, and the FPR driver on his game, look to these two to challenge the pair from Red Bull Racing.

Winterbottom and the other Ford drivers will have their work cut out because Holden have won the past 11 V8 Supercars races, including the final two events last season and this year's first two.

Having a car fast straight out of the truck is vital as qualifying is so short this year. Only two drivers - Whincup and McLaughlin - have started in the top 10 for every race so far in 2014 so the rest of the field will have to up their game to achieve a good grid spot.