Anton de Pasquale turned a pole position start to victory in race 26 of the Supercars season on Saturday afternoon – his fourth win over three weekends – but that hardly tells the story of an exciting and chaotic sprint race.
De Pasquale finished well ahead of championship leaders Shane van Gisbergen after the brave decision to take four fresh tires paid off with a clutch overtaking, but there was another podium for young Will Brown in a race that saw multiple collisions and Drama involved.
The fierce battle between de Pasquale’s Shell V-Power Racing Team and the Red Bull Ampol Racing Team took less than a turn to come back to life and lasted all 32 laps of an exhilarating 26th race.
De Pasquale and team-mate Will Davison as well as the Red Bull duo of world championship leader Shane van Gisbergen and retired team-mate Jamie Whincup have been the standouts in the three races since Supercars restarted at Sydney Motorsport Park.
And their heated argument off the track last week almost boiled over in the race for the first corner. Davison, who started from third, had a good start on the inside line, but Jamie Whincup, who started second, immediately switched to Davison. The couple could easily have collided with Davison, who almost slammed the inside wall, but Davison backed away – and lost a seat to van Gisbergen, who had room on the outside.
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RACE CENTER: Complete race and session results
Then van Gisbergen and Whincup came into contact when the teammates battled for position in turns one and two and chased the pole sitter de Pasquale.
Finally, Whincup let van Gisbergen pass after a handful of laps.
But behind the fighting four at the front, there was even more chaos.
Scott Pye and James Courtney locked the wheels around the first corner and made Courtney spin – but luckily they avoided a major shunt with the wall.
Nick Percat suffered a mechanical problem and had to retire in the pits in the middle of the race. Team owner Brad Jones said, “It looked like he broke a screw in the front suspension.”
With 15 laps to go, de Pasquale pitted in a bold move, taking four tires compared to the two used by most of the field. It soon paid off as he quickly passed Jamie Whincup at Turn Eight. Van Gisbergen pitted a lap later but was in the lead as he only got two tires compared to de Pasquales four.
The pair walked side by side during the ninth lap run after de Pasquale stayed wide and turned in on corner eight, but de Pasquale managed to hold the train in place thanks to his four fresh tires.
James Courtney was shunted all the way down the field in an early turn.Source: FOX SPORTS
The other Shell of Davison was behind third-placed Whincup.
Young Gun Will Brown suffered a poor pit stop because the front left tire was not properly secured. He stopped a meter or two on the trail and had it secured again. And while it hurt his race, he recovered and secured a remarkable podium.
The race turned significantly when Bryce Fullwood overcame a mechanical problem and was forced to stop on the track, causing the safety car to come out while he was being towed back to the pits.
The race started again with 12 laps to go, but Cameron Waters in the Tickford Racing car was turned back on the first lap when Jack Le Brocq tagged his own teammate. Le Brocq was then beaten with a drive-through penalty.
Brodie Kostecki in his Boost Mobile used fresher tires (and four fresh tires) to get past Will Davison into fourth place and chased Jamie Whincup (two fresh tires) for a podium.
Davison was also soon overtaken by Will Brown (fifth) before Scott Pye stormed past him as well.
But Kostecki couldn’t get past him until his tires were worn out, and he stepped aside to allow Erebus team-mate Will Brown to take a break with four laps to go. It only took Brown one lap to advance to third place while Whincup’s defense resulted in Kostecki closing the gap and almost getting past him.
Brown was overjoyed with his third place. “I have the best team-mate in the world, that was great,” he said.
It’s been a hot day for Whincup – he was lucky enough to finish fourth after finishing second. “I hated it. I absolutely hated it … my teammate made me look silly … I got this thing around painfully.”
But Zane Goddard was the first choice among the drivers, who improved from his starting position ten places to eighth place.
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QUALIFICATION AND PRACTICE REPORTS
De Pasquale led the two sessions on Saturday in wild wind conditions of up to 40 km / h, adding to his four poles and three race wins in the last two weekends in Sydney.
Then he carried this shape into qualifying with his Shell V-Power Racing drive, surpassing Q1 and Q2 and then losing a sublime 1: 28.6377 – by far the fastest lap of the weekend and three tenths of a second faster than his performance in Q2 -, to storm in pole.
He said, “This car is in a pretty good window. It’s obviously a fast car and I like to drive it. It’s cool when you risk everything. “
Jamie Whincup made it into second place on the grid, 0.3435 seconds behind de Pasquale, whose team-mate Will Davison was just third in front of championship leaders Shane van Gisbergen’s other Red Bull Ampol Racing car.
Whincup said he was, “Really happy. For us this is a maxim (d performance). Bringing geriatrics like me to the front row is a great achievement. “
He said the Shell team is still a faster car and said, “The guys next door are one step ahead, they have been for the last fortnight.”
After two action-packed weekends in which the weather wreaked havoc – and Shane van Gisbergen consolidated his championship – this is a milestone for the Kiwi superstar and his teammate Jamie Whincup.
For SVG it is his 200th round start in a sensational career, while Whincup is making his 250th round start. The two team-mates from Red Bull Ampol Racing lead the championship one-two.
In the first practice session, de Pasquales led 1: 29.440s ahead of Shell V-Power Racing team-mate Will Davison ahead of Will Brown, the young man who took his maiden pole position last weekend.
In the second session, de Pasquale overtook van Gisbergen with 1: 29.288 seconds just 0.104 seconds after he made a small mistake on his last flying lap and the duo crossed the finish line in front of Brodie Kostecki, Davison and Brown.
Van Gisbergen said the wind caused a lot of pain, especially the headwind on the first corner. “You feel like you’re one great in (corner), but you go through a lot slower … A bit embarrassing, but everyone struggles with it.”
FULL PROGRAM
All times AEDT
SATURDAY
Exercise 1: 10:50 a.m. – 11:20 a.m.
Exercise 2: 12:20 – 12:50 p.m.
Qualifying – Race 26 (Parts 1, 2 and 3): 2:10 p.m. – 2:50 p.m.
Race 26: 4:45 p.m. – 5:45 p.m.
SUNDAY
Qualifying – Race 27: 11:45 a.m. – 11:55 a.m.
Qualifying – Race 28: 12:05 p.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Race 27: 13:50 – 14:50
Race 28: 4:45 p.m. – 5:45 p.m.
Watch each session live on Fox Sports 506 and stream on Kayo.
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