Sydney Supercars: De Pasquale and Brown share victories

De Pasquale had already taken victory in the opening race on Saturday, his fourth win of the championship's Sydney swing, and cruised to victory in race two while Jamie Whincup and Shane van Gisbergen triumphed in a thrilling battle for the podium.

The race was an all-Dick Johnson Racing affair, Will Davison challenging polesitter De Pasquale through Turn 1 and into Turn 2 on the opening lap.

The latter managed to stave off the early challenge, but on lap 10 Davison went for the undercut, pitting for four new tyres. De Pasquale waited four laps longer to do the same, re-emerging around a second behind Davison.

De Pasquale then shadowed his team-mate for a few laps before inquiring over the radio if any team orders in play, before being told he was "free to race" by engineer Ludo Lacroix, and retook the lead on lap 20 and eventually victory by six seconds.

Will Davison and Anton De Pasquale

"I'm glad it looks [easy], it doesn't feel it," said De Pasquale. "I'd hard work. The cars are a handful after a few laps and you're just hanging on to it for the rest of it."

Davison's early stop set up a thrilling battle for the podium spots as he came under pressure from Whincup, Chaz Mostert and van Gisbergen late in the race.

Whincup, who stopped for three tyres on lap 16, held off a challenge from Mostert early in the second stint before setting after Davison.

With four laps to go Whincup and Davison staged a thrilling side-by-side battle for several corners, the Red Bull Holden driver eventually passing.

That opened the door for Mostert to join the fun as well, a hip-and-shoulder on Davison at Turn 2 three laps from home setting up a pass for third.

The pain wasn't over for Davison, though, who a lap later found himself being passed for fourth by Shane van Gisbergen.

The Kiwi had taken three new tyres on lap 19 which gave him the rubber to not only get past Davison but hunt down Mostert, pipping the Walkinshaw driver for third by 0.01s in a drag to the line.

"The end was awesome," said van Gisbergen. "Carving through, everyone was racing well. And the last corner with Chaz, I saw him slide and keep wiggling. I was head down on the wheel like in a go kart trying to go faster."

In the final race of the weekend, Brown took his maiden series win after holding off a warring Triple Eight pair of Whincup And van Gisbergen.

Will Brown scores his maiden Supercars victory

Photo by: Mark Horsburgh

The Erebus driver filtered to the top of the order during the stops, benefiting from the undercut after stopping on lap 13 and only taking on two tyres.

That should have left him vulnerable to early pacesetters Whincup and van Gisbergen as they stopped on laps 16 and 19 respectively for three new tyres each.

However, an epic intra-team battle between the two Red Bull drivers slowed their progress, Whincup ignoring calls from the pits to let van Gisbergen past and even running his Kiwi team-mate wide several times as they made contact.

They eventually settled into a rhythm, Whincup leading van Gisbergen despite calls to let him through, but fell just short of catching Brown.

"I was shitting myself a little bit when they were catching me," said Brown. "I thought, 'it's on here'. I thought if I could back them into each other they would dog fight against themselves, which is what ended up happening.

It was a strong showing for the Holden teams, Brad Jones Racing pair Nick Percat and Todd Hazelwood and Team 18's Scott Pye rounding out the top six.

Van Gisbergen continues to lead Whincup in the standings by 337 points, and also holds a 43-point lead over De Pasquale in the $25,000 Sydney Cup.

Supercars race two result - 32 laps

Cla	Driver	Car	Gap
1	Anton De Pasquale	Ford Mustang GT
2	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	6.087
3	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	9.952
4	Chaz Mostert	Holden Commodore ZB	9.960
5	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	12.117
6	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	14.566
7	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	16.650
8	Will Brown	Holden Commodore ZB	26.093
9	Brodie Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	28.051
10	Bryce Fullwood	Holden Commodore ZB	31.131
11	Zane Goddard	Holden Commodore ZB	34.188
12	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	39.384
13	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	43.557
14	Jack Le Brocq	Ford Mustang GT	43.833
15	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	44.133
16	Andre Heimgartner	Ford Mustang GT	49.092
17	Fabian Coulthard	Holden Commodore ZB	49.861
18	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	50.983
19	James Courtney	Ford Mustang GT	51.462
20	Tim Slade	Ford Mustang GT	53.149
21	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	53.974
22	Jake Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	55.045
23	Luke Youlden	Ford Mustang GT	1'04.205
24	Garry Jacobson	Holden Commodore ZB	1'08.948
View full results

Supercars race three result - 32 laps

Cla	Driver	Car	Gap
1	Will Brown	Holden Commodore ZB
2	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	0.280
3	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	0.522
4	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	6.468
5	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	7.413
6	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	12.169
7	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	13.583
8	Chaz Mostert	Holden Commodore ZB	15.005
9	Anton De Pasquale	Ford Mustang GT	16.128
10	Jack Le Brocq	Ford Mustang GT	20.192
11	Brodie Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	22.603
12	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	22.777
13	James Courtney	Ford Mustang GT	24.004
14	Bryce Fullwood	Holden Commodore ZB	25.622
15	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	31.287
16	Jake Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	36.550
17	Zane Goddard	Holden Commodore ZB	36.550
18	Garry Jacobson	Holden Commodore ZB	37.598
19	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	38.308
20	Tim Slade	Ford Mustang GT	38.643
21	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	38.717
22	Fabian Coulthard	Holden Commodore ZB	41.691
23	Luke Youlden	Ford Mustang GT	44.391
24	Andre Heimgartner	Ford Mustang GT	46.692
View full results