Last weekend we had a racing situation that saw two teammates, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, vying for the ultimate prize, the Formula One World Drivers Championship and this weekend, we see a very similar scenario with another two teammates, Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen, vying for their ultimate prize, the Supercar series crown.
The situations are similar in another way too…both had a multiple champion vying against someone aiming to secure their first, and in both occasions, the multiple champion was trailing the rookie in the overall points tally. Lewis had to win the race in with a chance of taking the title, as does Jamie. Rosberg only had to finish on the podium if Lewis won and he would be champion, while van Gisbergen only needs to finish fifth.
Two races, two very similar situations, however, while we may see the same result, van Gisbergen winning by simply crossing the line behind Whincup and not taking any chances of getting caught up in someone else's accident, Whincup has vowed that he won't use Lewis Hamilton's tactic of trying to back his teammate into the oncoming pack.
“No, I don't think so – I've got a bit more respect than that against my team-mate,” Whincup said. “So I'll go out there and do my thing and see where we end up. We will go out there and race hard and race fair and there will be nothing untoward. I am sure we won't have it all our own way. There will be four or five other cars in the mix as well, so we will just feel through that. I just need to do my job and get to the front.”
Hamilton was 12 points behind Rosberg with 25 points up for grabs while Whincup is 191 points behind van Gisbergen with 300 on the table this weekend.
