Marcos Ambrose will be returning in his Pirtek Falcon for the first time with th𝔍e number one plate on his door as the defending series champion. Here he talks us around a lap of the street course.

"There is no doubt that the Clipsal 500 is one of the best events of the ♍V8 Supercar Championship Series with a huge atmosphere and massive crowd and promoter support.

From a racing perspecti🔯ve it is also one of the most demanding weekends 🍨of the championship, especially if the temperature starts to creep up.

The circuit is fantastic to drive on, but the concrete walls trap all the smoke and fumes and it's imperative that 💧your helmetꦇ and car ventilation is working correctly.

You flash o✤ver the start finish line in fifth gear at about 220kph.

You brake at the end of💞 pit lane an🎉d look for the outside curb so you can virtually use it as a "ski jump".

That sets you up to keep your foot flat for the left hand kink out of the chicane, this can certainly b𝓰e a little tricky on older tyres.

The next section is all second gear as four corners vir𓆉tually become one, it just all flows.

You need to be careful because there is a lot of road camb🔴er on the exit of each corner and the car tends to want to slide around at the rear, this is a section where you can make up a lot of time.

The run on to the back straight is relatively simple and as you hit sixth gear and a top speed of around 230kph you charge towards the most challenging c🌠orner in Australia.

This high-speed right-hander allows you no vision on the entry or the💃 exit, with only concrete walls to stop ꦰyou if you make a mistake.

It's then heavy on the brakes and🦹 back through the gears for the hairpin which is a very slow, sometimes first gear, corner.

Thiܫs is a prime passing spot, but it is difficult to get the power down as quickly as you would lik🦂e.

The left-hander behind the paddock area is tr🌟icky because it tightens up on you on the wa☂y out and it,s easy to run into the wall on the outside if you are going too fast.

You are then back on to the circuit proper and the 💯surface smooths out. The right-hand kink before the last hairpin is also difficult because you are braking right the way through it and it is easy to lock a wheel, that is certainly bad for business, especially on the opening lap of a 250km even🔜t.

It is important to get in and out of the hairpin as sm🥃oothly as possible to ensure a quick run on the front straigh⛎t where you start it all over again.

In total we𓂃 complete about 24 gear changes per lap for a total of around 1872 ꦦfor the 78 laps of each 250km race.

We had♚ a great start here lastꦐ year by winning the first race on the Saturday, but unfortunately things did not go so great on the Sunday.

We ꦇare looking forward to making up for that this weekend."