Melbourne Supercars: McLaughlin wins as Mustangs lock out top five
Scott McLaughlin won Friday's opening Supercars race at Albert Park, as a late mechanical issue for Shane van Gisbergen left Mustangs occupying the top five spots
The top three Fords bolted in the early stages of the 25-lap race, with little separating leader McLaughlin from Fabian Coulthard and Cam Waters behind him.
However, a big gap back to the rest of the pack quickly developed, with fourth-placed Triple Eight Holden driver van Gisbergen losing more than five seconds in the first three laps alone.
As van Gisbergen and the chasing pack continued to drop time, things stabilised for the runaway three at the front across the first stint.
By lap five McLaughlin had built himself a 1.5-second advantage over Coulthard, with Waters a second further back.
Coulthard was first of the leaders to pit on lap 10 having drifted to around 3s behind his team-mate, with McLaughlin and Waters separated by 5s when they both came in a lap later.
The undercut from pitting a lap earlier helped Coulthard get back within a second of McLaughlin, but Waters lost time to the Penske Mustangs almost immediately after having to hold off Tickford team- mate Will Davison, who had stopped way on lap eight.
From there the two Penske's cruised through the second stint of the race - McLaughlin was unable to completely drop Coulthard, but at the same time never came under serious threat from his fellow Kiwi.
In the end they took a comprehensive one-two, separated by six tenths at the flag.
Waters had a mostly lonely run through the second stint on his way to third place, although that was somewhat helped by late drama for van Gisbergen.
The Red Bull Holden driver had run deep into his first stint, pitting on lap 15 for a charge to the finish on new rubber.
While the overcut meant he initially dropped down to sixth, he quickly cleared Tim Slade and Davison and set after Waters.
But his charge was cut short when with three laps to go the #97 Commodore rolled to a stop at the first corner with a suspected transaxle issue, although Triple Eight later later confirmed this was an engine issue.
Chaz Mostert was the big mover of the race, recovering from 22nd on the grid to come home fifth.
There was no strategic wizardry to his charge through the field, the Tickford driver running a balanced strategy with a stop.
Instead, he made the majority of those spots on-track, and was less than two seconds behind Davison by the end of the race.
Slade was the best of the Holdens home in sixth, followed by fellow Commodore drivers James Courtney and Jamie Whincup, separated by three-tenths at the end after a race-long battle.
Lee Holdsworth made it six Mustangs in the top 10, coming home ahead of David Reynolds.
The top-five lockout continued Ford's imperious form on the Australian Grand Prix support bill, after McLaughlin and Mostert claimed pole positions for the third and fourth races of the weekend.
McLaughlin, who had already secured pole for Saturday's second race, fired out a 1m53.999s on his first run in the first 10-minute session - which left him half a second clear of the field.
But the reigning champion's run of poles was finally broken in the session determining the race-four grid by Mostert, who chose to run right at the end of the final 10-minute session and stormed to top spot with a 1m54.278s.
Race one result - 25 laps
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Scott McLaughlin | DJR Penske | Ford | 50m01.2406s |
2 | Fabian Coulthard | DJR Penske | Ford | 0.6869s |
3 | Cameron Waters | Tickford | Ford | 4.6191s |
4 | Will Davison | 23Red Racing | Ford | 9.9166s |
5 | Chaz Mostert | Tickford | Ford | 11.5580s |
6 | Tim Slade | Brad Jones | Holden | 15.8203s |
7 | James Courtney | Walkinshaw | Holden | 21.7601s |
8 | Jamie Whincup | Triple Eight | Holden | 22.0214s |
9 | Lee Holdsworth | Tickford | Ford | 22.4497s |
10 | David Reynolds | Erebus | Holden | 23.1883s |
11 | Anton De Pasquale | Erebus | Holden | 23.7964s |
12 | Mark Winterbottom | Schwerkolt | Holden | 27.7701s |
13 | Scott Pye | Walkinshaw | Holden | 29.4074s |
14 | Nick Percat | Brad Jones | Holden | 37.0027s |
15 | Andre Heimgartner | Kelly | Nissan | 37.7592s |
16 | James Golding | GRM | Holden | 38.9641s |
17 | Richie Stanaway | GRM | Holden | 40.6279s |
18 | Simona de Silvestro | Kelly | Nissan | 40.8855s |
19 | Macauley Jones | Blanchard/BJR | Holden | 56.2765s |
20 | Jack Le Brocq | Tekno | Holden | 56.7973s |
21 | Garry Jacobson | Kelly | Nissan | 1m10.3778s |
22 | Rick Kelly | Kelly | Nissan | 1m21.0200s |
23 | Todd Hazelwood | Matt Stone | Holden | 2 Laps |
- | Shane van Gisbergen | Triple Eight | Holden | Engine |
Race three qualifying result
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Scott McLaughlin | DJR Penske | Ford | 1m53.9990s |
2 | Cameron Waters | Tickford | Ford | 0.5224s |
3 | Tim Slade | Brad Jones | Holden | 0.5893s |
4 | Nick Percat | Brad Jones | Holden | 0.6155s |
5 | Fabian Coulthard | DJR Penske | Ford | 0.6366s |
6 | Jamie Whincup | Triple Eight | Holden | 0.6436s |
7 | Chaz Mostert | Tickford | Ford | 0.6536s |
8 | Anton De Pasquale | Erebus | Holden | 0.7689s |
9 | David Reynolds | Erebus | Holden | 0.7886s |
10 | James Courtney | Walkinshaw | Holden | 0.9731s |
11 | Mark Winterbottom | Schwerkolt | Holden | 1.0530s |
12 | Will Davison | 23Red Racing | Ford | 1.0755s |
13 | Shane van Gisbergen | Triple Eight | Holden | 1.1732s |
14 | Lee Holdsworth | Tickford | Ford | 1.2201s |
15 | James Golding | GRM | Holden | 1.2773s |
16 | Richie Stanaway | GRM | Holden | 1.3278s |
17 | Andre Heimgartner | Kelly | Nissan | 1.4075s |
18 | Scott Pye | Walkinshaw | Holden | 1.5371s |
19 | Rick Kelly | Kelly | Nissan | 1.7215s |
20 | Garry Jacobson | Kelly | Nissan | 1.8378s |
21 | Todd Hazelwood | Matt Stone | Holden | 1.8607s |
22 | Jack Le Brocq | Tekno | Holden | 1.9863s |
23 | Simona de Silvestro | Kelly | Nissan | 2.1170s |
24 | Macauley Jones | Blanchard/BJR | Holden | 2.2232s |
Race four qualifying result
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Chaz Mostert | Tickford | Ford | 1m54.2783s |
2 | Scott McLaughlin | DJR Penske | Ford | 0.0872s |
3 | Jamie Whincup | Triple Eight | Holden | 0.3535s |
4 | Cameron Waters | Tickford | Ford | 0.4087s |
5 | Shane van Gisbergen | Triple Eight | Holden | 0.4542s |
6 | Will Davison | 23Red Racing | Ford | 0.4702s |
7 | Mark Winterbottom | Schwerkolt | Holden | 0.5079s |
8 | Fabian Coulthard | DJR Penske | Ford | 0.5271s |
9 | Tim Slade | Brad Jones | Holden | 0.5442s |
10 | Lee Holdsworth | Tickford | Ford | 0.6097s |
11 | James Courtney | Walkinshaw | Holden | 0.8448s |
12 | David Reynolds | Erebus | Holden | 0.8476s |
13 | Nick Percat | Brad Jones | Holden | 0.9067s |
14 | Anton De Pasquale | Erebus | Holden | 1.0036s |
15 | Scott Pye | Walkinshaw | Holden | 1.0271s |
16 | Todd Hazelwood | Matt Stone | Holden | 1.2393s |
17 | Richie Stanaway | GRM | Holden | 1.2802s |
18 | Rick Kelly | Kelly | Nissan | 1.3220s |
19 | Garry Jacobson | Kelly | Nissan | 1.5462s |
20 | Simona de Silvestro | Kelly | Nissan | 1.8621s |
21 | Jack Le Brocq | Tekno | Holden | 1.9453s |
22 | Macauley Jones | Blanchard/BJR | Holden | 2.1897s |
23 | James Golding | GRM | Holden | 3.5310s |
24 | Andre Heimgartner | Kelly | Nissan | 5.5560s |
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