Motosport: Winterbottom is top after double success

Mark Winterbottom (5) leads team-mate Chaz Mostert at Barbagallow Raceway, Perth. Photo / Getty Images

Ford's Mark Winterbottom holds a one-point lead in the V8 Supercars championship after winning both of yesterday's 60km races in Perth.

The Prodrive racer, who earlier in the day secured his first pole position in more than a year, dominated the two 25-lap races.

Winterbottom held off team-mate Chaz Mostert to secure his first race win of 2015 in the opening race, and then led from start to finish in the second race to complete a clean sweep. It has been three years since he won consecutive races.

"Awesome day for the team," Winterbottom said. "To get a pole position - it's been about 12 or 14 months - and good to get the wins."

The victories lift the 2013 Bathurst champion from sixth to the lead of the championship by just one point from defending champion Jamie Whincup, who said he was almost "embarrassed" to find himself on the podium after finishing second in the second race.

The six-time V8s champion could finish only 16th after qualifying a lowly 21st for the opening race and admitted he was merely trying to hold off his rivals after snaring second on the grid for race two.

"It wasn't our proudest day at the race track," he said. "We pretty much had one good lap for the day in the second qualifying session and the rest was pretty ordinary."

Holden's Fabian Coulthard was the best of the Kiwis, finishing eighth and third. Shane van Gisbergen was fourth in the opening race but languished at the back of the pack after a poor qualifying, finishing 24th, and Scott McLaughlin parked his Volvo after a throttle sensor issue, continuing his troubled run this season. He was 11th in the first race.

Veteran Craig Lowndes' bid for an unprecedented 100th V8s race win will have to wait. Lowndes finished fifth in the second race and is a mere four points behind Winterbottom as the title race tightens.

The Perth Supersprint wraps up today with an 83-lap 200km race.