Sydney Supercars: Dominant De Pasquale wins opener

The Dick Johnson Racing ace made light work of the first 32-lapper of the weekend, the first Supercars race held since Townsville in July due to a COVID-19 hiatus, turning pole into a dominant lights-to-flag win.

Championship leader Shane van Gisbergen, who made good early headway from sixth on the grid, did his best to challenge De Pasquale with an overcut strategy.

But even stopping four laps later didn't give him the pace to run De Pasquale down in the second stint as the 26-year-old romped home to win by five seconds.

"That was good, it was good fun," said De Pasquale.

"It's always fun at night. It was quite a good battle with Will [Davison] into Turns 1 and 2 and there guys delivered me an awesome car. It was good to convert this one."

Behind van Gisbergen, there was a thrilling late battle for the last spot on the podium.

Nick Percat found himself running third mid-way through the second stint, but under significant pressure from Erebus pair Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown, who had both taken on four new tyres rather than two during their stops.

Percat's stubborn defence held out until the penultimate lap when Kostecki finally found his way past, demoting the #8 BJR Holden to fourth place.

Percat did manage to hold off Brown, who was unlucky not to be well clear in third place based on his opening stint.

The rookie had run second until late in the first stint when he was passed by van Gisbergen, and then lost more positions in his stop when a crew member dropped a wheel nut.

Fighting back to fifth was, in that context, an impressive effort.

Will Davison, Dick Johnson Racing

Photo by: Dick Johnson Racing

Chaz Mostert finished sixth ahead of De Pasquale's team-mate Will Davison, who actually made the best start out of any of the front-runners, but with nowhere to go past De Pasquale and Brown on the first lap ran wide.

That cost him critical momentum, Davison swiftly losing a heap of places and never finding his way back to the front group. 

David Reynolds finished eighth, Jamie Whincup ninth and Tim Slade 10th.

Sydney Supercars Race 1 results (32 laps):

Cla	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	Anton De Pasquale	Ford Mustang GT	-
2	Shane van Gisbergen	Holden Commodore ZB	5.159	5.160
3	Brodie Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	10.389	10.389
4	Nick Percat	Holden Commodore ZB	10.963	10.964
5	Will Brown	Holden Commodore ZB	11.676	11.677
6	Chaz Mostert	Holden Commodore ZB	16.936	16.936
7	Will Davison	Ford Mustang GT	18.520	18.520
8	David Reynolds	Ford Mustang GT	22.593	22.594
9	Jamie Whincup	Holden Commodore ZB	22.811	22.812
10	Tim Slade	Ford Mustang GT	27.515	27.516
11	Fabian Coulthard	Holden Commodore ZB	36.614	36.615
12	Mark Winterbottom	Holden Commodore ZB	37.136	37.137
13	Cameron Waters	Ford Mustang GT	37.958	37.958
14	Todd Hazelwood	Holden Commodore ZB	38.592	38.593
15	Andre Heimgartner	Ford Mustang GT	38.798	38.798
16	Macauley Jones	Holden Commodore ZB	41.789	41.790
17	Garry Jacobson	Holden Commodore ZB	43.892	43.893
18	Bryce Fullwood	Holden Commodore ZB	45.061	45.062
19	Scott Pye	Holden Commodore ZB	45.233	45.233
20	Jack Smith	Holden Commodore ZB	45.382	45.382
21	Jack Le Brocq	Ford Mustang GT	45.572	45.573
22	James Courtney	Ford Mustang GT	53.908	53.909
23	Jake Kostecki	Holden Commodore ZB	56.952	56.952
24	Zane Goddard	Holden Commodore ZB	1'00.728	1'00.729
View full results