Supercars Albert Park: Kostecki wins wild Race 2

There was drama before the second race of the weekend even started, initially thanks to delays from the crash-affected Formula 3 qualifying.

That meant the Supercars race went from a 15-lap duration to a time certain finished at 3:33pm local time plus one lap.

As the delayed start neared, there was a light sprinkle of rain around the Albert Park precinct, with the race declared wet for a second time in as many days.

At the same time there was an issue with the starting lights that meant the Australian flag had to be used to get the race underway.

When the flag did finally wave, it was Will Brown that got the jump from the outside of the front row to grab the lead from polesitter and race one winner Shane van Gisbergen.

Brown's Erebus Camaro team-mate Kostecki briefly got in front of van Gisbergen too, although the Triple Eight racer was able to re-establish second by midway through the first lap.

It was at that point the safety car was called, David Reynolds left beached at Turn 1 after James Courtney punted Tickford team-mate Cam Waters into the Grove Camaro.

As the race was neutralised Nick Percat's miserable start to the year continued as his WAU Mustang's V8 engine caught fire. He limped back to the pits where the flames were extinguished, although the car was left badly scorched.

The lap four restart led to some wild racing at the front, van Gisbergen making a play for the lead that saw him run wide at Turn 5 and dropped him back to fifth in the order.

Shane van Gisbergen, Triple Eight Race Engineering Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Photo by: Edge Photographics

Kostecki came out of the madness in front while Courtney slid down to the inside of Brown to take second.

Interest then turned to the mandatory stops, the wet declaration meaning those that started on super softs only needed to take on two new tyres.

From lap five onwards the field filtered through the pits, Kostecki, Courtney and van Gisbergen among the last to do so right as the safety car was called for a second time on Lap 7.

This time the culprit was Jack Le Brocq who sideswiped the wall on the way through the fast Turn 8 complex.

Kostecki, Courtney and van Gisbergen managed to get out ahead of the field to reclaim the top three spots, the race then ending under safety car as Kostecki scored his first Supercars win.

However, Courtney was subsequently given a 30-second post-race penalty for instigating the contact that wrecked the races of Reynolds and Waters, dumping him back to 22nd in the final result.

That boosted Broc Feeney to fourth ahead of Chaz Mostert and Anton De Pasquale, while Brown was shuffled back to seventh amid the stops but moved up to sixth following Courtney's demotion.

Bryce Fullwood finished seventh from Thomas Randle, James Golding and Mark Winterbottom. But Golding was handed a 15-second penalty for an unsafe release that impeded Jack Smith, dropped him to 21st as Declan Fraser completed the top 10.

Mostert continues to lead the series, although the gap to Kostecki is now just 11 points.

The Melbourne SuperSprint continues on Sunday with two back-to-back qualifying sessions starting at 9:05am and then a third race at 5:30pm.

Supercars Albert Park - Race 2 results (8 laps)

Cla	Driver	Car	Time
1	Brodie Kostecki	Chevrolet
2	James Courtney	Ford Mustang GT	1.1047
3	Shane van Gisbergen	Chevrolet	1.9217
4	Broc Feeney	Chevrolet	2.7972
5	Chaz Mostert	Ford Mustang GT	3.5574
6	Anton De Pasquale	Ford Mustang GT	4.5074
7	Will Brown	Chevrolet	5.4657
8	Bryce Fullwood	Chevrolet	6.0501
9	Thomas Randle	Ford Mustang GT	6.6827
10	James Golding	Chevrolet	7.4066
11	Mark Winterbottom	Chevrolet	8.1940
12	Declan Fraser	Ford Mustang GT	8.9118
13	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	9.4234
14	Macauley Jones	Chevrolet	10.1621
15	Tim Slade	Chevrolet	10.6640
16	Jack Smith	Chevrolet	11.3762
17	Cameron Hill	Chevrolet	12.2806
18	Andre Heimgartner	Chevrolet	13.4827
19	Matthew Payne	Ford Mustang GT	14.9614
20	Scott Pye	Chevrolet	15.7700
21	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	16.1019
22	Todd Hazelwood	Ford Mustang GT	16.4247
23	David Reynolds	Ford Mustang GT	1 lap
	Jack Le Brocq	Chevrolet
	Nick Percat	Ford Mustang GT
View full results