Motorsport: Whincup scores a trio

The difference was day and night, but not on the track.

The V8 Supercars moved from night racing at Abu Dhabi to a sandy, wind-blown daytime event in Bahrain on Friday but reigning champion Jamie Whincup still dominated his peers with another race victory.

That win, coupled with his back-to-back victories at Yas Marina last weekend, means the two-time champion has begun 2010 with a hat-trick of wins in the Middle East.

But despite his form mirroring that of his start to last year's championship defence, Whincup refused to even contemplate the thought he was already on his way to another title.

"Massively different feeling to last year, mainly because the first two rounds are off-shore," he said. "We've got a massive challenge on board to try to win as many races as we can.

"At the moment we're unsure, we're going into races with a question mark on the how the car is going to perform. We take an educated guess and so far this year we've made the right calls."

For the second time in three races, Whincup was sharing the podium with team-mate Craig Lowndes as the three-time driver's champion clawed his way back from an eighth-placed start to finish third.

But while the TeamVodafone juggernaut has looked unstoppable at times during the V8s two-week Middle East adventure, one challenger in Ford's Mark Winterbottom looks capable of ending their winning run.

Winterbottom splits Whincup and Lowndes on the championship ladder, coming second between the pair in Bahrain on Friday after a magnificent passing move on lap 22 of the 37-lap race showed a TeamVodafone Commodore can be caught.

And the 2008 championship runner-up suggested he's far from given up on catching Whincup.

"The day will come," Winterbottom said. "At the moment we will keep tuning what we have got, keep bagging points.

"At the moment two seconds and a third is a great start. We are definitely stronger than we were at the start of last year so who knows?"

Holden Racing Team's Garth Tander also appears to be improving after a horror start in Abu Dhabi where he could only pick up 27 points to Whincup's 300. His fourth place finish in Bahrain on Friday boosted his total to 147.

The Desert 400 in Bahrain concluded overnight with a 20-minute all-in qualifying session ahead of another 200km race.

- AAP