It was all Scott McLaughlin at the Perth SuperSprint with the Shell V-Power Racing Ford driver claiming his fourth-consecutive Supercars victory over the weekend at Barbagallo Raceway in Western Australia.
A poor qualifying session saw tem-mates McLaughlin and Fabian Coulthard knocked out in the opening Q1 phase, with Coulthard 17th on the grid, and McLaughlin 19th.
The race proved to be incredible, as McLaughlin mounted a stellar comeback drive and took an against-the-odds victory. He got a fast start, and gained several positions on the opening lap and moved himself to 12th before a lap-five safety car triggered a full-field entry to the pit lane.
It worked well for McLaughlin, gaining several more positions to exit in seventh. Through the second stint he used strong car pace to continue his push to the front. It ended up being a three-stop race, with the combination of speed and good strategy seeing McLaughlin take his fourth win in a row in 2018.
“It’s like a footy team that’s 60 points down at half time,” commented McLaughlin. You’ve just got to rally, you’ve still got two quarters left and you’ve just got to get on with it.
“First to 19th, the two Bulls on the front row. it was a bit daunting. Our aim heading in was a top-five, and that a podium would be exceptional. Pretty much everything went our way in that race. It’s the best team effort that I’ve been involved with, I think. One of my best races ever.”
Second home was David Reynolds by eight seconds, the Erebus driver surviving an off at the very last corner, while Craig Lowndes raced from 25th to complete the podium. James Courtney held on for fourth, while four-stopper Shane van Gisbergen and Jamie Whincup took fifth and sixth in their Red Bull Holdens.
With four consecutive victories, a pair of victories at Phillip Island and now Barbagallo Raceway, McLaughlin leads van Gisbergen by 158 points in the championship after 12 races.
“Qualifying was alright today, we were straight through to Q2 which was good and then we got pole but I don’t remember how it played out,” said van Gisbergen. “I had a rubbish start in the race and then we had to stack in the pit stop which was no good.
“We had a heap of fuel on board while we were out the back and we were just stuck in traffic so we decided to be aggressive, we had the tyres. It’s a hard one, I think we did the right thing in stacking but if it was at the front we would’ve been able to race the front so it was a weird one.
“The last stop was good, we had better tyres than the others and we were able to come through but again, the stacking killed us. Autobarn Lowndes Racing did a good job, they stacked as well and got up the front. It’s alright, it’s my worst track and I finished with a third and a fifth so that’s good.”
Race 12 results
Pos Driver Laps
1 Scott McLaughlin 83 laps
2 David Reynolds +7.9804
3 Craig Lowndes +10.6476
4 James Courtney +12.1612
5 Shane van Gisbergen +17.6959
6 Jamie Whincup +18.7973
7 Nick Percat +19.9819
8 Andre Heimgartner +24.5580
9 Jack Le Brocq +24.9147
10 Rick Kelly +28.2302
11 Chaz Mostert +31.7718
12 Simona de Silvestro +33.2298
13 Cameron Waters +33.4671
14 Garth Tander +33.9180
15 Scott Pye +41.8664
16 Fabian Coulthard +42.2749
17 Tim Slade +45.0913
18 Lee Holdsworth +45.2740
19 Richie Stanaway +48.5982
20 Will Davison +53.9250
21 Mark Winterbottom +1 lap
22 Todd Hazelwood +1 lap
23 Anton de Pasquale +1 lap
24 Tim Blanchard +2 laps
25 James Golding +8 laps
26 Michael Caruso +15 laps
DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS
1. Scott McLaughlin 1247
2. Shane Van Gisbergen 1089
3. David Reynolds 1079
4. Craig Lowndes 1053
5. Jamie Whincup 979
6. Scott Pye 874
7. James Courtney 864
8. Chaz Mostert 845
9. Fabian Coulthard 809
10. Tim Slade 800
TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS
1. Triple Eight Race Engineering (Whincup/SVG) 2068
2. Shell V-Power Racing Team 2056
3. Walkinshaw Andretti United 1738
4. Tickford Racing (Mostert/Winterbottom) 1612
5. Brad Jones Racing 1578
6. Erebus Motorsport 1573
7. Nissan Motorsport (Kelly/Heimgartner) 1266
8. Garry Rogers Motorsport 1082
9. Triple Eight Race Engineering (Lowndes) 1053
10. NISMO (Caruso/De Silvestro) 1052
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