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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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