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Sydney Supercars: De Pasquale wins despite tyre scare

Anton De Pasquale won the final race at Sydney Motorsport Park despite a tyre scare that forced him into an early stop.

Anton de Pasquale, Dick Johnson Racing Ford

Anton de Pasquale, Dick Johnson Racing Ford

Edge Photographics

The polesitter seemed to be cruising early in the first stint, building a 3.5-second gap over fellow front row starter Will Brown across the first five laps.

However a delaminating right rear tyre forced De Pasquale into an early stop, his lap 11 service coming some five laps sooner than expected.

That initially gave the Dick Johnson Racing Mustang a healthy lead, close to 10 seconds, thanks to the undercut – but left Erebus Holden driver Brown with tyres that were six laps younger for the run home.

The better rubber helped Brown quickly reel De Pasquale in, the rookie slotting under the leader's rear wing with a handful of laps to go.

But some clever tyre management during the chase meant De Pasquale had some pace in hand when Brown got behind him, enough, as it turned out, to keep him at bay.

"Will was pushing me quite hard," said De Pasquale.

"I had a bit of tyre in hand so I pushed quite hard in the first [stint] and one of the tyres delaminated or something. I had to pit quite early and then do a long stint, which we didn't want to do.

"I knew Will was coming [in the second stint], so I saved a little bit of tyre for the battle. I knew it was going to happen. Once he got to me, I think he was pushing pretty hard so I don't think he had much [tyre] left."

Brown confirmed that he wore his tyres out during the chase.

"Typical young bloke, burned [the tyres] up," he joked. "I don't know if I was burnt out or the car was at the end there.

"I put a bit of pressure on [De Pasquale] out of the last corner and gave him a few taps, but once I was behind him it was too hot. I would have liked to get that win, but it's cool to be on the podium."

Shane van Gisbergen, Triple Eight Race Engineering

Shane van Gisbergen, Triple Eight Race Engineering

Photo by: Mark Horsburgh, Edge Photographics

Jamie Whincup finished a distant third, 20 seconds back, after a race-long tussle with team-mate Shane van Gisbergen.

Whincup led the way in the first stint but had mirrors full of van Gisbergen, a least until the Kiwi went for an early stop on lap 11.

The undercut helped the points leader get ahead of Whincup, but the seven-time champion had better tyres and was able to get back through on lap 25.

Will Davison finished fifth ahead of a much-improved Cam Waters, who took Tickford's best result of a tough weekend with sixth.

Chaz Mostert and Jack Le Brocq were next in line followed by Tim Slade and Mark Winterbottom.

Van Gisbergen had earlier won the second race after an electrical gremlin proved costly for early leader Davison.

Davison was given a free kick at the start of the race when polesitting team-mate De Pasquale bogged down at the start.

As De Pasquale dropped back to seventh, Davison was able to sweep into the lead, swiftly building a 2.5-second gap over a fast-starting van Gisbergen, who went from sixth to second on the opening lap.

That gapped was mostly stable across the first stint, Davison well-placed to take his first win since re-joining DJR.

However his good work was undone by an electrical gremlin that reared its head early in the stint, Davison left flying blind by a non-functioning dash.

The issue meant Davison had no speed indicator, gear indicator or speed limiter when he came in to make his lap 15 stop, a subsequently slow approach to his pit box allowing van Gisbergen to close the gap in the lane.

Van Gisbergen now leads the series by 338 points over Whincup.

The Supercars season continues with the second of four consecutive events at Sydney Motorsport Park next weekend.

Sydney Supercars - Race 2 results (32 laps):

Cla Driver Car Time Gap
1 New Zealand Shane van Gisbergen Holden Commodore ZB 50'24.226  
2 Australia Will Davison Ford Mustang GT 50'26.136 1.910
3 Australia Nick Percat Holden Commodore ZB 50'33.666 9.440
4 Brodie Kostecki Holden Commodore ZB 50'35.012 10.786
5 Australia Tim Slade Ford Mustang GT 50'41.086 16.860
6 Australia Jamie Whincup Holden Commodore ZB 50'41.218 16.992
7 Australia Chaz Mostert Holden Commodore ZB 50'41.773 17.547
8 New Zealand Andre Heimgartner Ford Mustang GT 50'42.208 17.982
9 Australia David Reynolds Ford Mustang GT 50'42.620 18.394
10 Australia Todd Hazelwood Holden Commodore ZB 50'49.908 25.682
11 Australia Will Brown Holden Commodore ZB 50'55.827 31.601
12 Australia Bryce Fullwood Holden Commodore ZB 50'58.556 34.330
13 Australia Cameron Waters Ford Mustang GT 51'05.423 41.197
14 Australia Jack Le Brocq Ford Mustang GT 51'09.077 44.851
15 Australia Scott Pye Holden Commodore ZB 51'12.757 48.531
16 Australia Macauley Jones Holden Commodore ZB 51'13.622 49.396
17 Australia Mark Winterbottom Holden Commodore ZB 51'14.505 50.279
18 Australia James Courtney Ford Mustang GT 51'15.170 50.944
19 Australia Jack Smith Holden Commodore ZB 51'17.846 53.620
20 Australia Zane Goddard Holden Commodore ZB 51'37.618 1'13.392
21 Australia Jake Kostecki Holden Commodore ZB 51'40.845 1'16.619
22 Australia Garry Jacobson Holden Commodore ZB 51'51.610 1'27.384
23 New Zealand Fabian Coulthard Holden Commodore ZB 50'29.549 1 Lap
  Australia Anton De Pasquale Ford Mustang GT -  

Sydney Supercars - Race 3 results (32 laps):

Cla # Driver Car Time Gap
1 11 Australia Anton De Pasquale Ford Mustang GT 50'02.617  
2 9 Australia Will Brown Holden Commodore ZB 50'03.879 1.262
3 88 Australia Jamie Whincup Holden Commodore ZB 50'23.192 20.575
4 97 New Zealand Shane van Gisbergen Holden Commodore ZB 50'30.783 28.166
5 17 Australia Will Davison Ford Mustang GT 50'35.851 33.234
6 6 Australia Cameron Waters Ford Mustang GT 50'37.160 34.543
7 25 Australia Chaz Mostert Holden Commodore ZB 50'40.357 37.739
8 5 Australia Jack Le Brocq Ford Mustang GT 50'42.078 39.461
9 3 Australia Tim Slade Ford Mustang GT 50'44.253 41.636
10 18 Australia Mark Winterbottom Holden Commodore ZB 50'46.753 44.136
11 8 Australia Nick Percat Holden Commodore ZB 50'49.039 46.422
12 44 Australia James Courtney Ford Mustang GT 50'49.052 46.435
13 7 New Zealand Andre Heimgartner Ford Mustang GT 50'54.009 51.391
14 26 Australia David Reynolds Ford Mustang GT 50'57.859 55.242
15 99 Brodie Kostecki Holden Commodore ZB 50'58.057 55.440
16 96 Australia Macauley Jones Holden Commodore ZB 50'59.356 56.739
17 34 Australia Jake Kostecki Holden Commodore ZB 51'01.208 58.591
18 2 Australia Bryce Fullwood Holden Commodore ZB 51'07.110 1'04.493
19 4 Australia Jack Smith Holden Commodore ZB 51'13.442 1'10.825
20 20 Australia Scott Pye Holden Commodore ZB 51'13.777 1'11.160
21 22 Australia Garry Jacobson Holden Commodore ZB 51'14.550 1'11.932
22 35 Australia Zane Goddard Holden Commodore ZB 51'20.934 1'18.317
23 14 Australia Todd Hazelwood Holden Commodore ZB 51'19.323 3 Laps
  19 New Zealand Fabian Coulthard Holden Commodore ZB 27'46.925 15 Laps

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