Motorsport: Coulthard sweating on repairs after crash

Fabian Coulthard is pictured after colliding with David Reynolds. Photo / Getty Images

Fabian Coulthard is hoping his Shell V-Power Ford crew can repair his car ahead of this afternoon's qualifying session at the ITM Auckland SuperSprint.

His championship charge took a massive hit yesterday when he ended upside down against a wall late in the race after an incident involving a number of cars.

It is a tough ask fixing a car with such extensive damage in a satellite round like Pukekohe, where teams bring only a limited amount of parts with them.

"They always look worse than they are. I have the best crew in pit lane and if it is fixable they will fix it and we will be back out there [today]," he told Herald on Sunday.

Coulthard and his team opted to take a lot more fuel on during his first pit stop during yesterday's race and that saw him drop out down the order. He slowly picked his way through the field and found himself in a battle just inside the top 10 towards the back-end of the race.

Ford driver Chaz Mostert, who was a couple of cars ahead of Coulthard, made a dive at David Reynolds at the hairpin and banged into the Erebus Racing Holden. As he fought to regather himself he grabbed the wrong gear and it resulted in a number of cars fighting for position. Coulthard tangled with Reynolds and both ended up off the track - the Kiwi on his roof.

"Me being a racer, I saw two easy passing opportunities and I went for it and we were 90 percent there," Coulthard explained. "I got a tag from Dave behind the right rear wheel, which sent me to the grass and I was a passenger from there."

It is a major blow to his championship hopes. From 17 points off the lead heading into the weekend, Coulthard now finds himself 137 points behind Jamie Whincup.

"It is not over," he said of his title hopes. "We have today if we can get it fixed and then we have got Newcastle. We will remain focused, concentrate and see what happens."