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Race report
Supercars Albert Park

Supercars Albert Park: Feeney wins strategic finale

Broc Feeney used an aggressive undercut strategy to help seal a second career Supercars win at Albert Park.

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The race got underway in unique circumstances, the safety car leading the field for a lap before releasing the cars single-file.

That was part of the mitigation measures put in place by Supercars following two seperate engine fires on Friday and Saturday.

Polesitter Feeney led initially, although starting on the hard compound Dunlop meant he would always be a sitting duck.

He was quickly swamped by both super softs-clad Mostert and Will Brown who dived either side of the Red Bull Camaro on the first green flag lap.

Feeney and the rest of the hard runners, including Andre Heimgartner and Brodie Kostecki, all dived into the pits at the end of that first green flag lap to take on the super soft tyres.

That left Mostert leading Brown until lap 4 when the Erebus driver made a play for the lead on the outside of Turn 13.

Brodie Kostecki, Erebus Motorsport, Chevrolet Camaro

Brodie Kostecki, Erebus Motorsport, Chevrolet Camaro

Photo by: Edge Photographics

It proved to be unsuccessful, though, Brown losing control of his Camaro on the exit of the corner and spinning into the wall.

Mostert then led Bryce Fullwood until lap 8 when a clearly quicker Fullwood dived into the lead at Turn 1.

As Fullwood pulled away things got worse for Mostert, who was swamped by Will Davison, Shane van Gisbergen and Jack Le Brocq on the next lap.

What later proved to be a blistered tyre saw him drop even further back in the field before he stopped.

At the same time the early stoppers started to emerge in the picture with the likes of Feeney, Heimgartner and Kostecki closing to within a stop of the lead, despite being at the back end of the top 10 on the road.

When the top eight all took their mandatory service on the penultimate lap the early stop strategy paid off. Feeney rocketed through to the lead from Heimgartner and Kostecki, with Fullwood dropping to fourth ahead of van Gisbergen.

Fullwood's day then got worse during the stops, contact with Mark Winterbottom in the lane drawing a 15-second penalty.

There were no changes at the front on the final lap, Feeney scoring a second career victory by just under a second from Heimgartner.

"When I survived the first lap, and I was nearly faster than [Mostert and Brown] over the back, I was like, 'this is good'," said Feeney. "I let Chaz and Will go and tried to slot in behind them.

"Fresh air was awesome. This morning it was a flip of the coin as to what we were going to do, but we certainly made the right strategy.

"What a way to win, Grand Prix Sunday. I've dreamt about this for a long time."

Third place for an in-form Kostecki meant he walked away with the Larry Perkins Trophy.

The Erebus driver also took over the series lead from Mostert who struggled to 14th thanks to that tyre issue.

Fullwood crossed the line in fourth but was demoted to 18th thanks to his penalty.

That promoted van Gisbergen to fourth ahead of Le Brocq, Davison, Macauley Jones, David Reynolds, Todd Hazelwood and Cam Waters.

The 2023 Supercars season continues with the Perth SuperSprint on the last weekend in April.

Supercars Albert Park - Race 4 results (13 laps)

Cla Driver Gap Interval
1 Broc Feeney    
2 New Zealand Andre Heimgartner 0.9117 0.9117
3 Brodie Kostecki 2.7231 1.8114
4 New Zealand Shane van Gisbergen 8.7718 6.0487
5 Australia Jack Le Brocq 9.9167 1.1449
6 Australia Will Davison 10.5246 0.6079
7 Australia Macauley Jones 11.4527 0.9281
8 Australia David Reynolds 15.2502 3.7975
9 Australia Todd Hazelwood 15.8180 0.5678
10 Australia Cameron Waters 15.8206 0.0026
11 Australia Thomas Randle 16.5233 0.7027
12 Matthew Payne 17.3889 0.8656
13 Australia Scott Pye 17.5282 0.1393
14 Australia Chaz Mostert 18.8398 1.3116
15 Australia Tim Slade 19.9660 1.1262
16 Australia James Golding 20.1583 0.1923
17 Australia Jack Smith 21.4852 1.3269
18 Australia Bryce Fullwood 22.0448 0.5596
19 Australia Mark Winterbottom 22.7960 0.7512
20 Australia Nick Percat 26.4239 3.6279
21 Declan Fraser 26.7026 0.2787
22 Australia Anton De Pasquale 38.9518 12.2492
23 Australia Will Brown 2 Laps 2 Laps
  Cameron Hill 1 Lap  

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