Supercars Darwin: Mostert wins thrilling finale fending off De Pasquale

De Pasquale got the jump on Will Davison from the outside of the front row at the start to bank track position for the opening stint.

The two Shell Fords then ran in formation with a little under a second separating them.

Behind them it was initially Cam Waters who sat in third, however the Tickford driver was passed by Shane van Gisbergen at Turn 6 on lap 17.

On lap 19 De Pasquale pitted from the lead, however he didn't resume in the effective lead. That instead went to Chaz Mostert, who had pitted 10 laps earlier for just two new tyres and pulled off a massive undercut to go from sixth to the lead.

Mostert's gamble looked to have hit a serious snag on lap 26 when Garry Jacobson and Zak Best tangled and Best ended up in the wall on the outside of Turn 6.

The resulting safety car should have left Mostert as a sitting duck, with De Pasquale and his three new tyres, and Will Davison on four new tyres taken on lap 23, right behind him.

Davison was best-placed for the lap 31 restart based on tyre condition, however the veteran was slow away when the race went green.

That let van Gisbergen get under him into Turn 1, the pair making contact as Davison was escorted wide.

Davison slipped back to fifth while van Gisbergen picked up damage and dropped all the way back to 21st. He was also slapped with a 15-second penalty for his efforts, which meant the series leader was classified dead last.

That left De Pasquale as the sole challenger to Mostert and his ailing rubber, but try as De Pasquale might there was no way through, as the Walkinshaw Andretti United driver held on for a famous win.

"There's no worse mentality than going into a safety car knowing everyone has fresher tyres than you," said Mostert. "Not just two, but four.

"Ripper effort by the team, we went super aggressive. The [car] somehow just hung on. I kept Anton just at bay, I had nothing left."

The win comes amid what's been a difficult weekend for WAU and Mostert, who was disqualified from two sessions, one of which was yesterday's opening race.

De Pasquale's aggressive measures to try and get through Mostert late in the race saw Cam Waters almost sneak through for second.

The two Ford drivers ended up drag racing to the finish line, De Pasquale just holding on ahead of his Tickford rival.

Given van Gisbergen's woes, the second place has helped De Pasquale close the points gap to the Kiwi to 214.

Davison finished fourth ahead of a fast-finishing Andre Heimgartner, Broc Feeney and Will Brown.

Jake Kostecki was eighth, Mark Winterbottom ninth and Nick Percat 10th in the second WAU entry.

James Courtney was a surprise appearance on the grid after his Mustang was badly damaged in Sunday's earlier race.

The Tickford Racing crew put in a rapid shift between races to repair the car, only for it to cop more bonnet damage early in this race. Still he was able to come home 19th.

Scott Pye's car, which was also damaged in the Courtney crash, unfortunately couldn't be repaired in time to take part in the race.

Cam Waters, Tickford Ford leads Shane van Gisbergen, Triple Eight Race Engineering Holden

Photo by: Edge Photographics

Waters wins crash-marred Race 2 at Darwin

Cam Waters held off Will Davison to win a Supercars race marred by a nasty early crash for James Courtney.

The race was only green at the start for a number of corners before it was neutralised following a frightening crash for James Courtney.

The Tickford driver looked to be fired off the road on the exit of Turn 5 before bouncing across the infield and collecting a number of cars on the other side, including Scott Pye and team-mate Thomas Randle.

The impact effectively took all three drivers out on the spot and led to the race being red-flagged after a handful of laps behind the safety car.

After a lengthy clean up the race was restarted behind the safety car before finally going green again on lap 5.

At that point polesitter Waters was leading Davison, David Reynolds and Shane van Gisbergen at the head of the queue.

Those four held formation across the first stint before van Gisbergen kicked off the stops for the front-runners by taking on two new tyres on lap 17.

Waters and Davison responded on the next lap, resuming in what was effectively first and second, while Reynolds opted for an overcut and stayed out.

As the stops shook out Waters and Davison ended up in their own battle for the lead, little to separate the pair across the second stint.

But as tense as it was there was no way through for Davison, Waters holding on for victory.

Van Gisbergen backed off in the second stint to hold up Anton De Pasquale in fourth, the Kiwi never confident that he could fight the top two cars and instead looking to consolidate third.

Reynolds, meanwhile, gambled on a four-tyre stop on lap 22 which dropped him to ninth for the run home, and with his superior grip he was able to make decent headway, but fifth was the best he could manage by the finish.

Jack Le Brocq moved forward from eighth on the grid to sixth at the finish ahead of Mark Winterbottom, Chaz Mostert, Andre Heimgartner and Nick Percat.

Supercars Darwin - Race 3 results

Cla	#	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Interval
1	25	Chaz Mostert	Holden Commodore ZB	-
2	11	Anton De Pasquale	Ford Mustang GT	0.9580	0.958	0.958
3	6	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	1.1035	1.104	0.146
4	17	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	1.4933	1.493	0.390
5	8	Andre Heimgartner	Holden Commodore ZB	3.3056	3.306	1.812
6	88	Broc Feeney	Holden Commodore ZB	3.3158	3.316	0.010
7	9	Will Brown	Holden Commodore ZB	8.8692	8.869	5.553
8	56	Jake Kostecki	Ford Mustang GT	9.0464	9.046	0.177
9	18	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	9.2514	9.251	0.205
10	2	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	9.3879	9.388	0.137
11	3	Tim Slade	Ford Mustang GT	9.6175	9.618	0.230
12	26	David Reynolds	Ford Mustang GT	11.3049	11.305	1.687
13	34	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	11.4972	11.497	0.192
14	14	Bryce Fullwood	Holden Commodore ZB	11.6735	11.674	0.176
15	55	Thomas Randle	Ford Mustang GT	12.1206	12.121	0.447
16	10	Lee Holdsworth	Ford Mustang GT	12.6078	12.608	0.487
17	4	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	15.7478	15.748	3.140
18	96	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	15.9186	15.919	0.171
19	5	James Courtney	Ford Mustang GT	16.6211	16.621	0.702
20	22	Chris Pither	Holden Commodore ZB	19.0477	19.048	2.427
21	97	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	40.0360	40.036	20.988
22	76	Garry Jacobson	Holden Commodore ZB	43.0405	43.041	3.005
23	35	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	1 lap
24	99	Brodie Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	1 lap
	27	Jayden Ojeda	Holden Commodore ZB	13 laps
	78	Zak Best	Ford Mustang GT
	20	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB
View full results

Supercars Darwin - Race 2 results

Cla	Driver	Car	Laps	Gap	Interval
1	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	37
2	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	37	0.6169	0.6169
3	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	37	1.8496	1.2327
4	Anton De Pasquale	Ford Mustang GT	37	2.7475	0.8979
5	David Reynolds	Ford Mustang GT	37	3.6527	0.9052
6	Jack Le Brocq	Holden Commodore ZB	37	10.5375	6.8848
7	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	37	11.0661	0.5286
8	Chaz Mostert	Holden Commodore ZB	37	12.2347	1.1686
9	Andre Heimgartner	Holden Commodore ZB	37	12.6210	0.3863
10	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	37	17.3743	4.7533
11	Jake Kostecki	Ford Mustang GT	37	23.0573	5.6830
12	Lee Holdsworth	Ford Mustang GT	37	26.9676	3.9103
13	Broc Feeney	Holden Commodore ZB	37	27.5196	0.5520
14	Tim Slade	Ford Mustang GT	37	28.0681	0.5485
15	Bryce Fullwood	Holden Commodore ZB	37	28.4083	0.3402
16	Brodie Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	37	29.2098	0.8015
17	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	37	31.0501	1.8403
18	Garry Jacobson	Holden Commodore ZB	37	31.9186	0.8685
19	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	37	32.3231	0.4045
20	Will Brown	Holden Commodore ZB	37	33.4636	1.1405
21	Zak Best	Ford Mustang GT	37	35.2869	1.8233
22	Chris Pither	Holden Commodore ZB	37	39.4494	4.1625
23	Jayden Ojeda	Holden Commodore ZB	37	43.1430	3.6936
24	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	29	8 Laps	8 Laps
	Thomas Randle	Ford Mustang GT	6	31 Laps	23 Laps
	James Courtney	Ford Mustang GT	0
	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	0
View full results