Jamie Whincup insists there will be no Lewis Hamilton-style tactics during his title battle with team-mate Shane van Gisbergen at the Coates Hire Sydney 500.
Whincup enters the weekend as a long shot for a seventh title, sitting 191 points adrift of the Kiwi with just 300 available across the two 250km races.
The equation means Whincup will need Van Gisbergen to strike major trouble in order to cause an upset.
Last weekend’s Formula 1 title decider featured a not too dissimilar scenario as Nico Rosberg held on to score his first championship against team-mate Hamilton.
Needing Rosberg to finish outside of the top three, Hamilton controversially slowed in the closing stages of the deciding race to upset his pursuing team-mate.
Although the tactic failed to change the result, Hamilton’s decision to defy team orders in his dogged pursuit of the title triggered widespread debate.
Shrugging off the direct comparison to Formula 1, Whincup said he’ll be focussed solely on trying to win this weekend’s two races.
“We’ll go out there and race hard and fair,” said Whincup.
“There will be nothing untoward.
“I’m sure we won’t have it all our own way like New Zealand.
“No doubt there’ll be four or five other cars in the mix as well.
“I’m just focussing on my job which is to try to get up the front.”
Whincup was third fastest today behind pace-setter Van Gisbergen and Brad Jones Racing’s Tim Slade.
“It was the hottest we’ve ever had here on a Friday and throw some soft tyres in the mix, it was hard work out there,” he said.
“We just didn’t get it together with my car, it was pretty ordinary at the end and we used a lot of tyres to go quick.
“We’ve got a bit of work to do tonight.”
Van Gisbergen was happier with his car after topping the second session and hopes to continue his form into qualifying.
A top five finish tomorrow with seal the title, regardless of where Whincup finishes.
“Today was about getting the car fast and comfortable and we managed to achieve that,” said Van Gisbergen.
“We need to have a good qualifying, start up the front and stay out of trouble.
“If you need to conserve at some point I guess I will, but I’m not just going to pull over and let people past.
“The aim is to get the best result on Saturday and see how we end up.”
The introduction of soft tyres in Sydney this year is, together with how the track surface will hold up, a major unknown.
“The track has worn away a little bit and one of the characteristics of this track is a lot of braking and a lot of traction zones,” explained Van Gisbergen.
“That really wears out the tyres a lot. For us it’s a bit of an unknown, but we didn’t have a lot of tyre deg here the last few years.
“It’s going to be surprising, especially if the temperature is in the 30s, but today I was still doing reasonable times on my first set and they’d done a lot of laps.
“It’s an unknown when you do it all in a row but we’ll find out.”
While Van Gisbergen has little reason to race hard against Whincup tomorrow, the former said he would wouldn’t apply Hamilton’s tactics against a team-mate regardless of the points scenario.
“Probably not against a team-mate, especially under team orders like that,” he said.
“If it was against another team you’d do everything you can as long as it’s within the rules.”
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