Two wins from two Perth Superprint races has seen Scott McLaughlin close the gap on championship leader and team-mate Fabian Coulthard in the 2017 Virgin Australia Supercars Series. After his victory yesterday, McLaughlin is just 31 points behind Coulthard in fourth place with the top five separated by that margin.
Coulthard (802) is ahead of Shane van Gisbergen (783), Jamie Whincup (780) with McLaughlin and Chaz Mostert tied on 771.
“I came into this weekend with a plan to take as many points off the leaders as possible, and it’s been a perfect weekend in that aspect,” commented McLaughlin. “Two wins and a pole is amazing, especially with Roger here at the track as well. I feel like I’ve kicked off my year now, with two wins under the belt and great pace, we’ve got plenty to look forward to for the rest of the year.”
Earlier in qualifying for Sunday’s race, McLaughlin scored Shell V-Power Racing’s fourth straight ARMOR ALL Pole Award in a tight qualifying session ahead of the 200km Race 8. He lowered the qualifying record set by team-mate Fabian Coulthard yesterday to 54.57s on his second green tyre run before sitting out the final minutes.
He went on to dominate Race 8, leading from start to finish, only dropping back when pitting but always remained the effective leader. He took the victory by 4.6s, controlling the gap back to second place Chaz Mostert (Supercheap Auto Ford). Red Bull Holden Racing’s Jamie Whincup came home in third.
DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS
1 Fabian Coulthard 802
2 Shane Van Gisbergen 783
3 Jamie Whincup 780
4 Scott McLaughlin 771
5 Chaz Mostert 771
6 Mark Winterbottom 648
7 Garth Tander 606
8 Craig Lowndes 564
9 Cameron Waters 544
10 James Moffat 507
TEAMS’ CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS
1 Shell V-Power Racing Team 1608
2 Triple Eight Race Engineering (Van Gisbergen/Whincup) 1563
3 Prodrive Racing Australia (Winterbottom/Waters) 1227
4 Garry Rogers Motorsport 1113
5 Nissan Motorsport (R. Kelly/T. Kelly) 900
6 Walkinshaw Racing 834
7 Nissan NISMO (Caruso/De Silvestro) 798
8 Erebus Motorsport 783
9 Prodrive Racing Australia (Mostert) 771
10 Brad Jones Racing 699
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