Murphy Shows Some of What's to Come

Murphy missed the season opening round in Abu Dhabi the previous week due to a commitment to appear in the Top Gear Live show in New Zealand, flying into Bahrain for the Gulf Air Desert 400 on Tuesday.

His debut weekend in Castrol colours began strongly, the 36 year old earning a spot in the Top 10 Shootout with a fifth best lap in qualifying before ultimately starting the 200km, 37 lap race from the ninth grid position.

Murphy’s chance of a top 10 finish ended when a front brake bleed nipple worked itself loose early in Friday’s race, with Murphy requiring a longer pit stop than usual, going on to finish 16th.

“Qualifying Friday was good, fifth in the 20 minute session was encouraging, but my shootout lap wasn’t great – I was trying too hard and got it wrong,” Murphy said.

“I had a good start to the race and the Castrol Commodore was trucking along pretty good, but on the second lap I started having a brake issue. I had to pump the brake a lot and in the stop we found a bleed nipple had come loose and brake fluid was coming out.

“Unfortunately it cost us 14 seconds in the pits, which put us a long way back – and from there, there was air in the lines and the pedal was poor for the rest of the race. Otherwise, first up it wasn’t too bad and while we’ve still got to find a few things I think we would have easily finished inside the 10.”

A sticking throttle bugged Murphy in Saturday’s 20 minute ‘all in’ qualifying session and he could only produce the 19th best time, but despite repairs made the issue again reared its ugly head before the beginning of Race 4, the team electing to start the #51 Castrol EDGE Commodore from pit lane.

The problem, which is now suspected to be a leaking inlet manifold which was drawing in air and keeping the revs higher than normal, the problem ‘pushing’ the car into the corners and quickly wearing the front tyres – the brakes then next in line to be affected.

Further complicating matters was a bonnet clip coming loose, requiring an extra pit stop to fix it before the bonnet flew up into the windscreen – Murphy 22nd at race’s end.
“Initially the pace of our Castrol EDGE Commodore was quite good, better than yesterday, but it went away too quick,” Murphy said.

Murphy quickly became acclimatised to the cockpit of the Castrol EDGE Commodore, setting the fifth quickest time in Friday qualifying before the Top 10 Shootout. The #51 stood out on the vast expanse of the Bahrain International Circuit, adding a touch of green to the desert surroundings.

“The high engine revs were driving the car into the corners and I had no engine braking, and after a few laps of that it started tearing up the front tyres. When it did that I had to brake harder to slow the car, then that tore the brakes up...

“The bonnet clip then came undone and we stopped before the bonnet smashed into the roof, so the niggling issues all added up today, which was a shame.”

Reigning Champion Jamie Whincup won the race in his TeamVodafone Holden Commodore, giving him a clean sweep of the four Middle East races, from Mark Winterbottom and Shane van Gisbergen – Murphy’s team-mate Russell Ingall 13th in his Supercheap Auto Racing Commodore.

The team now heads home to finish assembling a new Castrol EDGE Commodore – an identical chassis to Ingall’s new car, and Abu Dhabi and Bahrain winner Whincup’s TeamVodafone Commodore. Murphy will debut the new car at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide in two weeks time.

“Working with the Castrol EDGE team for the first time was good and for us our year was always going to start in Adelaide with the new car, so we’re looking forward to getting home and shaking it down before it hits the track in Adelaide.” Murphy said.

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